Winter Honeymoon

We are in the midst of a weird storm right now... it's been snowing, off and on, since Thursday, and apparently this will be the last day of it. We are only supposed to get something like 8-10 inches total, but spread out over four days. We have been out sledding a ton lately, and the snow tubes that the boys got from their grandma & grandpa for Xmas are really coming in handy. I feel like we are still in honeymoon phase of winter - snow is still exciting and we are all loving sledding and building snowmen. We currently have a pretty sweet snowman sitting atop the slide in the backyard - he's got grape tomato eyes, a carrot nose, and a scarf and hat. He looks quite happy out there in all this snow.

For more winter fun, we also took the boys ice skating yesterday for the first time ever. It was so fun!! Unfortunately, when we got there we realized that it was cash only to pay for rentals and ice time, and poor Chad got the shaft when we didn't have enough money for all four of us. It kind of worked out in one sense though because I had to take turns taking the boys out on the ice. Chad and I both think that they would have gotten tired or bored pretty quickly if they were out there non-stop. But, because they had to take turns and wait a bit between laps, it made it more enticing to get out. Plus, they were always getting little breaks to rest. Anyway, I thought they did great, although they both needed lots of support to stay upright!! It was actually really tiring for my back to be holding them up so much! It was a good introduction to the ice though. After about an hour and a half, the kids got tired, and I got to skate for a while by myself, which I loved. It was the first time I have ice skated in something like 8 years, and I was pretty impressed with how good I was!! I mean, I wasn't doing tricks or anything, but I could skate backwards and forwards comfortably. I think that once you learn to balance and glide on ice skates or roller skates or roller blades, it just carries right over to the others. Chad and I were talking about how much fun it would be to have a little date night where we could take the train into the city with our rollerblades and go skating by the river again, just like in our single days. Perhaps this summer, we'll get the chance.

This is our last day of vacation - tomorrow, it's back to the harsh reality of alarm clocks, being outside for the bus, and packing backpacks every night.