ups and downs

Yesterday all of Rich's family in the state of Utah headed up to Oakley where Jenny's parents have a fantastic log cabin that sits on a stunning piece of property. We have gone up to Oakley several years in a row now at Christmas time for our family party. There is usually tons of great snow and a hill with the perfect "danger rating" for small children, meaning it's just steep enough to be fun and you can coast forever before running into the fence, which is good for the older children too. It was plenty cold outside, I think the thermometer was reading like 20 or something ridiculous, which is why my fingers aren't visible in this shot, they're tucked safely into my sleeves. My father-in-law took this picture, April calls these kind of shots (me with a camera in my hands) "observing Wende in her natural habitat" like an animal safari or something. The older kids suit up and hit the snow like crazy people and Max and especially Sam did too, in fact, Sam was a wild man, would've stayed out there all day if we let him. Sydney and Drew loved it too, but Sydney was at an advantage because her dad would carry her up the hill with her sled, so she didn't tire quite as quickly. And speaking of dads, do you know how many moms it takes to sled? Let's count....ZERO, only dads are braving the cold today. What I didn't take a picture of, were all the moms warm inside chatting, which I became one of too after catching a few pictures. In fact, I was so relaxed, I completely blew off taking any indoor pictures, I'm a dork. I purchased little a little snow bib and boots for Ethan this year, thinking he would love the snow, but so far he is 100% against even putting the boots on much less touching the snow. The above picture was during the two minutes that he wasn't crying, there was 15 minutes of crying before (getting his snow gear on) and 15 minutes of crying after (didn't want to be put down). He was a happy camper once inside, he especially loved this little Ethan-sized rocking chair, so cute. We love Oakley, thank Frank and Jenny for a fun day!
***EDIT*** Jenny was the only cool mom who went sledding, once down the hill. There were a few psycho moms out there taking pictures, Lisa and Jenny and I, I didn't realize Jenny sledded too! She is a very cool mom and I appreciate the blog correction, I generally don't like misrepresenting anyone! :)