sledding fun

(i'm a couple of weeks late posting this. the storm was jan 9-11.) with the threat of an ice/snow storm coming, we decided it would be a good idea to camp out at my parents house... in case we lost power, so we wouldn't be stuck on our hill with no heat! so we packed up and i swear it looked more like we were going on vacation for a week, rather than my moms house for a few days! josh and shannon were there too. so that's a total of 2 mamas, 2 daddys, 1 bitsy, 1 poppi, 1 nana, and 5 kiddos! :) the snow started falling sunday nite, HUGE flakes. they were so pretty. with it came sleet and rain. so when we woke up to 4 inches of snow monday morning, it was topped off by ice. we couldn't build a snowman or make snow icecream b/c it was so hard and frozen on top, but it made for perfect sledding fun!  

the big kids, checking out the snow sunday nite!

baby timothy stayed warm and cozy, and was a great little cuddler!

love this pic of the kids all bundled up, before we went out to play in the snow!

 everyone had their own sled! a few store bought, and a few homemade by poppi! he's the best! :)

 i sledded a few times, but mostly i enjoyed taking pics of everyone else having fun! i stopped to pose with the kids a few times! say cheese everyone!

 we had the BEST time sledding! we started in the back yard, then moved to the driveway. after that we stole the neighbors driveway, then the we got brave and moved to the big hills across the street! the kids had a blast. loved hearing their screams of fun, and in a few cases, seeing eyes big as saucers when their sleds went airborn. of course there were a few small spills, but nothing major!

 we always had one or two designated "catchers" at the bottom. usually i was one of them, and more times than not, the person on the sled flew on past me. good thing poppi was there to back me up! ha. (the bottom left is me trying to stop nate and trace!)

 yeah, THIS is the big hill i'm talking about! josh and shannon took turns with caden, and then nate and poppi also made a few trips down. by this point, i had gone inside with lucas, lala and trace. they were all freezing cold and miserable. lucas kept crying "cold, hands!"

 (this was before his meltdown, when he was still loving the snow!)

 ok yeah, i'm glad that i was not watching when the crazy boys adults were sledding. because apparently nate was gonna go for one last run, and wouldn't ya know, that's when he crashed into the curb. he bruised and scraped up his leg pretty bad, but worse than that, he broke the homemade sled! (j/k nate, you are more important than the sled!!!!)

 we just thought 3 inch pvc was pretty durable. must have been a hard hit nate took! very thankful that he didn't get hurt worse, and that josh and poppi had the sense NOT to let caden go on that last ride with dogg!!

 all the kids (big and small!) had a great time playing outside! and we enjoyed lots of good fun, yummy food, roasting marshmellows over the fire, and drinking hot chocolate while we were inside! my biggest complaint is the air mattresses weren't so comfy, but it was a small price to pay for being snowed in at bitsy and poppi's house! we def had a great time, and i guarantee it was more fun being all together than it would have been if we would have stayed home! mom says same place same time next year... but my guess is we won't have to wait until then!

 and one last pic that i couldn't resist not sharing of baby tim-a-fee! :) loved getting snowed in with this sweet boy.