Weekend Away!

We decided to spend the weekend at our friends house. It is a great place away from civilization and lots of fun space to explore. They love riding motorcycles and swimming in the summer but it is also fun to go explore, hike, and sled (when there is snow) during the winter months. Even though we haven't had any snow this week there was still some on the ground so we decided to not wait until more snow finally shows up.

We ended up driving through snow to get here because a storm that was supposedly passing south and east of us, was farther west than they thought. It was especially interesting since we had to make some stops on the way. Gavin had left his boots and good gloves at school (they have to be suited up to go out for recess - he has an extra pair of snow pants to leave there but sometimes he leaves his boots and gloves so he doesn't have to haul his bag home every day) so we had to try to find him a spare pair of each that he would then be able to leave at school. Surprisingly hard despite winter just having begun. I ran in to two stores on our way and managed to find something adequate and not ridiculously priced. Then we tried to locate new tube sleds since we only had the toddler sled from when Gavin was a baby. We lucked out there too and found two cool ones! 

We unloaded and ate quickly and then suited up and headed out. We found a place right next to the house that has enough of an incline that works as long as Scott catches them to prevent them from sliding down a huge drop off down to the creek. The tubes worked really well on the old snow because it was still relatively smooth but slick on top from melting and refreezing. 

We walked down to the creek to explore a bit. It would be great if it was this high during the summer months, it would feel great when it is hot out! The kids had a great time breaking what little ice they found and poking around with sticks.

We came in to warm up and play inside for a bit. The kids had a blast running around because there is so much space. After dinner, they went back out with Scott to sled in the dark since Gavin wanted to try out the lights on his tube. They had so much fun. It was even snowing a little.

Today, we waited for it to warm up slightly, since it went down to 8 degrees last night. After showers we bundled up and headed out for a while. I pulled Dane around out front on the toddler sled and then we headed over to the pond. It was frozen solid. I called Scott to bring Gavin to come check it out and he freaked out that we were on the ice. Apparently he didn't agree with my assessment of the state of the pond. It was fine and lots of fun though.

 

We will probably go out for a short time later but we came in for lunch and to watch the Steelers game. We have to head home after dinner because Gavin has school tomorrow but it is nice to come and play here for a couple days. We are hoping for more snow to fall so we can try more sledding places out around the property! A fun weekend away from home!