Auntie Manda and Unca Tom Go Toboganning

Tom and Dylan getting ready to go down the hill.

After my niece, Madelynn, was born, Tom and I thought it might be a good idea to take our nephew on a little outing.

We strapped him into the car seat in my parents Jeep, loaded in some crazy carpets, and made the two minute drive to an average sized hill in Copperfield.

In the car, we told Dylan we were going toboganning, and that we were going to slide down the hill. Dylan was more interested in tell us that he had seen Grandma Nonna out the window.

After we unloaded ourselves, we trudged through the snow, and up the hill, while Dylan chanted a chorus of "WIIIIINNNNNDY!" every few minutes. It was really windy!

We got half way up the hill, and I unrolled one our bright red crazy carpets. I'm pretty sure the crazy carpet is older than I am, but it has held up well for the last 25+ years.

I sat down on the crazy carpet and made room for Dylan to sit in front of me.

Then I said, "Okay Dylan! Are you ready to go down the hill?"

Dylan looked at me, looked at Tom, and looked at the crazy carpet, and said, as polite as can be, "No thank you."

Hmmm... Not exactly the reaction we were hoping for.

So I told Dylan that I would go down the hill by myself to show him what it was like. So I re-adjusted the crazy carpet, and went down the hill. I wasn't even at the bottom when I heard Dylan yelling, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuun! FUUUUUUUN!"

I dusted the snow off myself, and took the crazy carpet up to Tom and Dylan. This time, Dylan had no qualms about getting on to the carpet.

Crazy carpet action shot.

It's been a long time since I've been toboganning. I think the last time I went was some time in High School, which was probably 10 years ago. During that occasion, we used the same crazy carpets, and also a wooden sled. One of the guys tried to use the sled like a snowboard, and broke it in half. Then he denied it was him who had broken it-- but he was the first and only person to use it that day! I'm still a little bitter about that.

It probably would have helped if I had some sort of water resistant pant... My butt was soaked through! Dylan remained surprisingly dry.

Dylan seemed to enjoy himself. There were plenty of "Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiindy!" and "Fuuuuunnnn!" exclamations. But after about six runs down the hill, Dylan declared that he wanted to go home. I guess the wind was too much for him.

Me dragging Dylan back to the car.

He was making very slow progress walking through the snow on his own, so we tried to drag him back to the car on a crazy carpet, but he didn't have his hands in his mittens all the way, so he couldn't hold on. He kept sliding off onto the path. Truth be told, I think he enjoyed sliding off! He certainly didn't try very hard to stay on.

I think good times were had by all. I look forward to toboganning with Dylan again!