Day 32-- A Taste of Snow

Sabrina ensured that I had a short enough night last night that I decided not to go skiing today. It's kind of a shame, because it was a beautiful day today. Instead, we went to the snow as a family.

It took a loooooooong time to get ready... getting all the gear in place, feeding baby, feeding Edgar, feeding baby, running to the store to get clothing items we were missing, filling the inner tube, lunch, more driving, and... oh, feeding baby.

Although we don't get much snow in the winter in Oregon, there's usually snow within driving distance. So, if the mountain won't come to muhammad, muhammad must go to the mountain.

It was a beautiful day, snowing gently, with lots (maybe 5 inches) of fresh powder when we finally hit somewhere with snow on the ground. Edgar was excited, mostly for snowmen. He watched the Frosty the Snowman special over and over this last christmas.

Edgar and Daddy just getting out into the snow.

Jen and Sabrina. One of them is happy to be out of the car.

I built a snowman for Edgar. He didn't like it when his gloves got snowy, so he didn't really help. As you can see, I didn't try too hard to make a big snowman for Edgar. It's nice when they have no expectations.

Okay, perspective makes that snowman look really tiny. He was more than half as tall as Edgar, at least.

That's better.

I tried to interest Edgar in playing in the snow. He hated falling down in it. He hated walking in it. No interest in making a snow angel. Didn't like riding on the inner tube. He just wanted Daddy to carry him. He giggled when Jen and I threw snowballs at each other, and would throw a snowball, but only if someone else got their gloves snowy and made the snowball and handed it to him.

While I was expecting a really short stay in the snowy realms, and expecting it to end in tears somehow, I guess I was expecting a little more excitement and activity on the part of the boy. I had these grandiose plans of taking Edgar skiing at a really young age, perhaps later this season or next season. After today's experience with Edgar in the snow, that's not such a likelihood. My sister first took me skiing at 5 years old, and I still remember it. I thank her for it today, as I was young and fearless and learned to ski and learned to fall before I really learned to be afraid of a lot of things.

Edgar was done after about 15 minutes. "Daddy pick Edgar up. Edgar drive Mommy's house. Edgar all done snow."

So that's what we did. Jen fed Sabrina for what-felt-like-the-hundredth-time, and we packed her up to leave.

We had a little trouble getting Edgar out of the driver's seat, though. We keep trying to explain to him that you have to be sixteen to drive. Regardless, he keeps asking to. Jen had a very serious conversation about how you actually have to reach the pedals and see over the wheel at the same time.

At home, we were supposed to go to an old friend's surprise birthday party, but after getting the kiddos ready (not actually taking them out of the car from the snow), finding out that the party was being held 20 minutes back towards the mountains, and looking for addresses in the now pitch-black countryside, we gave it up as a lost cause and went home.

Fed Ed, bed; now we have leftover taco bell to look forward to, and trying to clean up all the clothes, deflate the massive inner tube, and get ready to do it all again tomorrow.