"Best. Sledding. Ever!"

It might be hard to believe, but up until this past weekend, we had never taken our littlest guy, Trey, sledding.  For one reason or another, it had just never happened!  So, after last week's snowstorm that left enough snow on the ground that it stayed until Saturday, we set out to remedy that situation.

Our morning was busy, as Nathan was finishing up work on the bathroom remodel by completing installation of the shower enclosure (Yippee!!!!...and more on that in a future post!).  Meanwhile, the two oldest boys were taking the ACT as part of the Western Academic Talent Search.  And on our way home, we stopped at iPie to grab some lunch to celebrate the end of both major morning tasks.  Amazing pizza!  BUT, the real fun began after that when we headed over to the Cotton Creek hill for some awesome sledding fun.

We didn't get a great start.  The first time Trey went down the hill, he was on a sled with Daddy and getting snow sprayed into his face.  He was not pleased!  The second time, he went down alone and fell off.  Needless to say, he was crying and wondering why we all thought this would be such a great idea!  We coaxed him onto a hill that wasn't so steep, where the pathways were not so worn and slippery.  And, before long, he was having the time of his life!  Soon he was flying down the big hill like an old pro, whooping and laughing and racing his bros and sis.  So much fun!

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Oh, this face!  He had such a blast!  His words: "This is the BEST. SLEDDING. EVER!"  (As if he had any other experiences with which to compare it..ha!)

Our little lady had a great time, too!  She is always nervous at first, but once she tries it, she can be very daring.  And she was, of course, the one who found a new friend while we were there.  She was so sweet to play with a little girl named Mia who was there with her dad.  They raced and played and had a great time.  As it turned out, Mia was the only girl in her family, too.  They both needed the girl time! :)

Here's our Chase telling us he was going over to a bigger hill to try out a jump.  Nate and I talked about how cautious and nervous he had been about doing things like this when he was a little dude, and that we could never have imagined back then (which doesn't seem that long ago!), seeing him so big and so daring and having so much fun doing crazy things.  Just wait until you see the video (below) of him using his sled like a snowboard to do what we called "snow surfing."  It was awesome!

Here's Avery, who has always been one to just FLY down the hill on his sled.  In this shot, he was taking it slowly because he was forging a new path on a hill that wasn't too steep, in order to help out his little Trey.  He's the sweetest big brother to Trey!  On the other hand, as a little brother, he's a little less tender.  He spent half his time on this day trying to clip in front of Chase. Ha!

Here's the whole crew trying to encourage Trey as he learned what to do.  Daddy had given him a nice little push down the hill.  He missed the curve here, though, and ran right into me.  Ha!  No biggie...he wasn't moving fast!

The videos below show some of the action!  The first one is Trey and Courtney and their little friend racing down the big hill together.  The second video shows Chase doing his "snow sledding."  He falls in this video, but he was persistent and eventually got down the hill a few times without falling.  Can you believe this kid?