Sledding!!!

So last weekend, there was an epic snowfall ... which just happened to coincide with our nephews (Marley on the left, Dylan below right) visiting from Philadelphia, so we got to go sledding with them. Awesome!!! It dropped two feet of snow on DC, some 16 inches in Philadelphia and around 10 inches in New York. This was the first real snowfall this year, and since my nephews were visiting, I was particularly excited about the snow. A few years ago, Aviva had surprised me after work with a nighttime sledding expedition, so we already had a sled. And when we told my 2 1/2 year old nephew Dylan on Saturday that we were going to go sledding tomorrow, he was ecstatic.

We got the early jump on sledding that night, around 11, when AJ, Alana, Allie and Zeke (our fabulous neighbors ... they are fantastic, and add an incredible new dimension to our lives here) came up from AJ & Alanas, walked in and demanded, in their heavily inebriated state, that we go sledding right now. So a stiff whiskey later, I found myself sliding backwards down the semi-public road in front of our building, desperately but futilely trying to steer myself away from the cars and the curbs ... I was not the only one with steering issues, and overall, despite the bruised knees and the cold, it was super fun. The rest of the evening, consisting of Balderdash and drinking, was also a blast, and as usual with our neighbors, we were up until around 0130 before we even knew it.

When we rose on Sunday, there was a beautiful, white blanket of snow covering everything. I love it when you first see snow before it has turned brown or been salted or moved into piles, it makes everything see so calm and beautiful. After a slow morning, we got everyone ready and ventured outside, finding several places in the complex in which to make sled runs. Although it was not Dylans first time sledding, I think it was the first time he remembered doing it (Rachel said she took him last year) and he loved it. Everyone had a blast sliding down hills with him and dragging him around on the snow, and I have to say I just loved the sledding by myself, as did Marley, who also enjoyed pelting us all with snowballs. We spent about an hour rampaging around int he snow, and when we got back inside I was exhausted. It is tiring playing in the snow, particularly dragging little and not so little kids around. Still, absolutely fantastic time and overall a wonderful weekend.

Sledding !!!

So, today around 11 am, I got a message from Aviva say simply, "We are not going to the gym tonight, but get home around 6 and don't ask questions." So I got home at 5:57, Aviva got home a little after 6, and then she said we had to change into warm, outdoor clothes. Wearing sweat pants and long underwear we trundled out the door into her car, and drove about 20 miles north up the Hutch, getting off around Harrison, just north of White Plains. We drove around for about 10 minutes, and Aviva kept saying, "I am sure its around here somewhere." Eventually she found it, an empty parking lot, next to a closed restaurant. A bit curious, I stepped out of the car, and Aviva went around to the back and pulled out a big red two-person sled and announced, "We are going sledding!"

It was an awesome, awesome surprise. I loved it. For those of you who grew up with snow, this is not all that exciting, but I had never been sledding before so it was great. There is a public golf course next to the restaurant and we spent the next hour running around like little kids in the snow, sledding down hills, wiping out, narrowly avoiding trees and generally having a ball. Towards the end of the hour or so we were out, I futilely tried to take some photos, but they did not come out well as you can see ... that is in fact me in the blue jacket. So I gave up on the photography (could feel my fingers anyway) and spent the last 20 minutes barreling down the mini-slopes head first or with no hands or both, dodging benches and trees and trying to get air off a snow covered sand trap. Eventually the temperature got the best of us, it was around 19°F outside after all, and we got back in the car and headed home, wet and cold but giggly and utterly satisfied.

Directions: To get to the golf course where we went sledding, drive north on Hutchinson River parkway to exit 25, turn left at the light onto North Street and pull off into Maplemoor Country Golf Course about 200 meters past the freeway overpass on the north side of the street.