Sledding Fun 2010

Knowing that there wasn’t much free time in J-rod’s schedule for the rest of the month, we went on our yearly trip in "search of snow" the Friday after the Pinewood Derby for an overnight stay in a condo and then sledding the next day. On our way out of town as we were heading up the mountain, J-rod noticed in his rear view mirror that our good friends J & J H and their family were RIGHT behind us!  After waving furiously we got on the phone and had a good laugh about how we were all headed in the same direction, at the same time to go do the same thing!!  Had we planned it, it probably wouldn't have worked out so perfectly!  Next time around we'll have to plan it so that we do go together and have some fun in the snow!!

After making our way up the mountain and unloading all our stuff into the condo, we decided to try the local Outback Steakhouse for dinner. We’d tried the Outback in both NY and SC a couple of times, and each time were left very disappointed by both the service and the food!  This time we were pleasantly surprised by how much we actually enjoyed ourselves--the food was YUMMY and the service was GREAT!!  M was especially excited to have discovered yet another restaurant that has steak on the kids menu (it's his FAVORITE!) 

With full bellies and happy hearts, we headed back to the condo and surprised the kids with the game “Apples to Apples Jr. Edition.” We have the regular edition but had been looking for the Jr. Edition for quite some time, so the kids were very happy to play!  After a good game, the kids and I hit the sack while J-rod got to work on a talk he would be giving in one of the wards in our stake on Sunday.

Saturday morning we made breakfast muffins at the condo then headed up the mountain to sled. It was a beautifully warm sunny day so the snow wasn’t very fresh or soft, but we still had a great time. C-sta enjoyed being pulled around in her pint-sized sledding seat but most of all LOVED sledding with her daddy—she definitely inherited the S family love of snow-play and is a ‘snow-bunny’ in the making! The boys had a good time too and can’t wait to go back.
 

Our original plan was to go see Disnye's "Princess and the Frog" after sledding, but thanks to an unexpected call that we got while ON the sledding hill, we had to quickly change our plans. J-rod's phone had been ringing all day due to many members of our stake wanting to know what the combination for the D.I. Pod (parked in the parking lot of our stake center) was...as part of his High Council assignment this was one of his responsibilities.  When a call came in showing the stake president’s number (our former bishop of only a year and a half, until December when he was called as the new stake president!) J-rod at first wasn't surprised by the call. Little did we know what changes would come to our little family by answering that call! After talking with the stake president for a few minutes, it became clear to me that we would be cutting our get-away to short and quickly heading home. The boys were very disappointed to say the least, but were eventually appeased when we promised to go see the movie Monday for FHE, a promise we did deliver on.

All in all we had a good time on our little sledding get-away.  Maybe next time around we'll get to stay long enough to get in some ski lessons!