Flat Out Fun

Last Friday we got a lot of snow.  Mike and I are guessing around 10 inches total before Saturday morning rolled around and we had to shovel again.  After shoveling the packed snow at the end of the driveway due to the plows, I informed Mike we might need to finally get a snowblower.  He said that was crazy talk.  1) "And miss all this fun?!?"  His exact words.  2) You can't buy a snowplow in the middle of winter - you'll get taken.  So winter 2010-2011 will go without a snowblower as have the past years.  But, we'll be doing research - I can guarantee.

Anyway - Saturday there was all this beautiful powder snow and the kids had been asking to go sledding.  I finally agreed to an outing.  We could only be gone a short time though so they decided one kid would bring a snowboard, and one a sled and they would share.  They decided this themselves.  Without parental involvement and without shedding blood.  It was a Christmas miracle.

And they did a great job of sharing.  Maddie simply had to tell Jake she wanted a run on the board and he happily handed it over.  The snow was awesome - some packed and some still fresh. I really, really wanted to be skiing!!

Maddie and I headed down on a couple runs and hit the fresh stuff.  She was in front and got the brunt of flying snow.  She looked like a snowman after a couple of those runs.  I was smart and ducked behind her.

And I have to say - snowboarding frightens me.  Literally.  I've tested their boards out and I get this small panic in having my feet firmly planted in one place and not being able to move them.  I realize I could end up with a pretty awesome broken leg if I were to take a nasty fall on skis too, but the ability to move all four limbs makes me feel safer.  But these guys both love to see if their next run can go further than the last.  I give them credit.  But I'd still feel much better if they learned to ski before legitimately snowboarding.  I'm losing that battle a little more everyday.

We were only sledding about 30 minutes before we headed home and threw everything in the dryer.  We were going to the Holidazzle Parade that night and needed everything warm and dry.  We all found our extra layers of clothing, donned those and headed out.  This year we actually remembered blankets for the kids to sit on.

See that blanket on the right?  This was Maddie's chair that somehow Jake got slush on.  After that she declared she absolutely didn't want to sit and wanted to stand.  We assured her it wasn't going to get her dirty and she said that had absolutely nothing to do with her not wanting to sit.

But I will also add that the second Jake stood up to stretch she jumped off that curb and landed her butt on his blanket/chair and didn't move.  I'm sure there was no correlation.

After I was blinding everyone with my flash Maddie wanted to take Mike's and my picture.

She said, "Nice.  I can't even see Mom."

What can I say?  I wasn't cold.  Except my feet.

These boots?  They are from my freshman year of college.  I thought they'd be warm enough.  But, surprisingly, they weren't.  Not in the least.  I told Mike that this week I was shopping for new boots.  And that I wasn't going to feel the least built guilty spending a fair amount of money on them.  And next year I'm skipping the whole "look like it isn't cold" look and going with the ski pants.  Even long underwear wasn't helping that night. 

Afterward we headed to "The Local" for dinner.  It's a favorite place of ours to eat downtown.  Except we were seated in an area directly to the side of the entrance.  This did not help my feet situation or general shivering in any way.  I finally ended up wearing my jacket as well as one of the blankets over my lap to keep warm.  If that isn't uber-cool-ness in a downtown hotspot on a Saturday night, I don't know what is.

After dinner we let the kids talk us into heading to the skating rink.

Minneapolis forgot to plow it, apparently.  Both kids were nervous the ice would break and we'd fall through.  After we told them it was a cement layer flooded with an inch of water they were fearless.

We did leave a mark to let the city dwellers know the Murphy's had been there...

Then we headed home.  While on the freeway we heard this very loud noise then nothing.  Then a minute later we heard another weird noise.  Mike pulled over, got out and discovered - as we'd guessed - that we had a severely flat tire.  We decided it wasn't in our best interest to change the tire in the dark on the side of the freeway right after a snowstorm.  We drove to the next exit ramp and pulled into a Caribou.  I thought this was a good sign...hot chocolate for the kiddies and me while Mike did the dirty work.  Except it wasn't open. 

So, in 20 degree weather, in the dark, I learned how to change a tire.  Mike mentioned that we should have had the kids out to watch so they could learn how this is done.  We decided they'd get a summer lesson instead.

But we did get in and tell them they were bad luck.  They were with my parents a couple months back when they experienced a flat tire on the freeway.  Mike told them that he hadn't had his first flat tire until he was in high school.  I told them I'd NEVER had one.  Here they are 8 and 11 and they'd each had two.

I think summer lessons are definitely in order at the rate they are going.