And we went sledding....

Two hours north of here is Flagstaff. They had a major snow-dump the last week (well, the week before we went - which was December 29th) and while Ross wanted to go the Friday before, I talked him out of it - first of all, it was going to be overcast and cold - and secondly - can you imagine how many crazy Phoenix residents would be heading up at the first sign of snow?

So we went on Monday - the second sign of snow - forecast called for SUN - and upper 50's - surely NO ONE ELSE would be there? No. Clearly I wasn't the only Phenician looking at the weather forcast.

There was hardly any room at our normal sledding spots. The road into the slope was cleared so exactly two cars could fit, one lane coming in to the slope, one lane going out - well, everyone was parallel parked on the going out lane, so as we came in - and cars came in behind us, we discovered we were trapped, so we put it in park and decided that we'd stay until everyone behind us left...in order...that's pretty much what we all did - so we stayed until the sun went down...and had an ABSOLUTE blast.

It was warm enough outside - that between the sun and the exercise of going up the slope carrying the sled, the kids only wore light sweatshirts and Ross (the dad) took his long sleeve off. He felt like he was in high school again - where he used to ski short sleeved...ah, to be young again...but with 6 kids...yah - there's a reality check - aged me 20 years in 30 seconds.

Anyway - our "tradition" (3rd time going! LOL!) is to bring up firewood - and make a camp fire - well, screw that tradition - the cars were bumper to bumper. (and it was pretty warm outside - so not really needed) So we took out the camp stove, camp table, the coffee percolator (we made hot water for cocoa) and the pre-cooked beef stew, and warmed it all up - ate a quick meal and the proceeded to do some sledding. The picture above of Coby & Brynn are in our camp chairs that only THEY could sit in (or there would be some serious sinkage!) Coby loved being a big girl in a big girl chair!!

Here are some more pictures of our stay. (I left my camera card at the house, so these were taking with Kiersten's camera - a new thing - that we're still trying to get used to!)

Brynn probably had the most fun.
Howie found a wheel-less skateboard and tried using it as a snowboard.
He actually did pretty well - I almost went to a store and rented one for him - too bad I was trapped between 30 cars?
Coby was a little worried coming down the slope, but after she stopped, she was giggling up a storm!

And Kiersten was my baby-holder while I looked for the photo-ops!