This past weekend we took the girls up to the mountains to the snow for some sledding and fun. This is another nice thing about living here in Southern California. It only took us one hour to go find some snow to play in. Then we got to leave it behind. No shoveling, no long days of being freezing cold, just drive, play and go home. I'm starting to see why so many people do love living here. There was a long period of time when I hated it here. I really don't hate it so much anymore. I still don't love it, but perhaps I'm getting used to it, who knows? I will say I still hate it when I get stuck in traffic at 1pm in the middle of the week, or I have to take the 405 anywhere. But there are a lot of pluses to living here, and being able to go play in the snow then leave it behind is certainly one of them.
Preparing to go to the snow is like preparing to go to the beach. I have to bring extra clothes to change the girls into, towels, snacks, a sled (instead of a boogie board), coats, mittens, hats etc. So it takes me getting everything ready the night before. You know because I don't have enough to do. But I do like going to the beach and the snow, so I suck it up.
We left early in the morning and the drive was really quick. This was a new place someone had told me about, and it is so close to us! We got to the "snowplay" area and managed to find a place to park quickly. We got the girls all ready and off we went. There was a big area of flat ground with snow, and behind small hills to sled down. Sonya was excited, Lana was iffy and Georgia wanted not much to do with this whole situation.
We got to the area where people were sledding. Sonya went down a few little slopes and then wanted to go down the bigger one with Andy. I was trying to convince the other two to go down the little hills with me. Lana flat out refused to get on the sled no matter what. Georgia was hesitant, but went with me down a couple of hills and didn't hate it. Sonya was the adventurer though. She went down the big hill a number of times with Andy. Then I went down with her once. Sledding when you're a kid is exciting, fun and not at all scary, but as an adult...let's just say I screamed like a little girl the whole way down. It was still damn fun though, even if it made pee my pants just a bit.
Not long after we arrived, I realized I had to use the bathroom toute de suite. Fortunately, and unfortunately there were outhouses nearby. Of course upon hearing I was going to the bathroom, Lana and Georgia wanted to go. Let me tell you people something now. You have NOT lived until you've been in an outhouse with a 2 and 3 year old. I mean they're so clean and inviting, why wouldn't you want your whole family in there? Except for the fact that I could barely fit myself in there with my huge winter coat. I just kept the lid down on the seat until go time for fear of one of the girls getting knocked in with all the um...grossness. Oh and they are sooooo gross.
Why is it that we live in an age when you can see people when you talk to them on the phone in your pocket, you can look up a restaurant anywhere in the world and get directions to it with that same small device, but if you have to pee outside? You get not much better than a hole in the ground with walls. Can someone work on that please?
I told both girls to close their eyes while I opened the lid and went. Then I held Lana and let her hover while she went. GG decided not to go. Smart girl.
Back to the fun! We built a little snowman and sledded some more. I continued to try and convince Lana to come on a ride down the hill with me to no avail. As it got closer to lunch time everyone started to get hungry, so we decided it was time to leave. It was then that Lana decided to hope on the sled for a ride back to the car, as Andy dragged it behind him. Sonya was on the back of the sled and I was walking far behind trying to keep hold of Georgia as best I could. The poor thing had zero balance in the snow. Lana was finally having a good time on the sled. I watched as they went down little slopes and I could hear them both squeal with excitement. This was good, because now maybe next time we came back Lana would actually go down a hill on the sled.
I was a bit behind them as they made their way to the car. There was a little slope and a snowbank right before the space the cars were parked along the side of the road. I saw them go over the slope and then I saw then stop completely. When I came upon the scene, Lana was crying and Andy looked up at me with an "Ooops" look on his face. Lana turned around to face me with a bloody lip. They had tipped when heading down the slope. Lana wasn't holding on to the sled and hit face first into the snow bank. So much for ever getting her back on the sled again. She cried for a few minutes, but Andy and I kept making a big deal about how cool it was that she got a snow injury. She wasn't buying it. We kept saying, "but wasn't the sled fun?" Her reply, "NO! Dat was not fun!"
She eventually calmed down and we did manage to convince her that she had fun before the fall. I think she even might have even been convinced that her bloody lip was a cool result. Figures, the one kid that was afraid to get on is the one who gets hurt when she does get on. Luckily, it wasn't that bad of an injury and she was fine. I'd like to say she'd forget it by the time we get back to the snow next season, but my kids have memories that date back to the womb. Well, almost. The good news for Lana is that summer is just around the corner and even though she's not much for the snow, that kid LOVES the beach. Although, I doubt she'll be trying out a boogie board any time soon.
1 comment:
I really wish you took video. Did you take video?
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