Sledding and Such

My family was able to come up and visit over President's Day weekend this year and we had a blast!  They were able to come up on Thursday night, so we had them for an extra day! I had warned them that with all of the snow we had gotten the previous weekend, we wouldn't be able to go and see as many things while they were here.  But Evan was thrilled with the snow and was hoping it would stick around long enough for him to play in it.  And it did...

The happy kid himself

Megan, Nathan, and Mom built this amazing snow slide down our back steps and the boys had soooo much fun on it.  It started out as a slide...

And turned into a pretty impressive sledding hill!

Grandma and Grandpa took Alan to dollar night at the Children's Museum.  Alan had been asking about it for weeks...  and is now telling everyone he meets about this "huge climbing thing..."  and is frequently asking if it's dollar night again. :)

They also made this nifty snow fort.

The next day we did go sledding.  

James is a little unsure...

The conditions weren't all that great, as the hill had been well sled on, and was pretty icy.  There was a dusting of fresher snow on top.  It was a little tricky getting back up the hill at times.

Apparently still a little unsure...

The big kids

Feeling a little happier with his uncle Nate

It took a lot of concentration to get back up :)

But it was all worth it!  After every time Alan sled down he would turn around and call up... "Did I steer?"  It was hilarious. I'm not sure what he meant by it, but we just reassured him that he did, and he seemed pleased with himself. :)

He was quite fearless and had pretty good body control.  He would lean way back and stayed on the sled most of the time.

A pretty cute one of a boy and his aunt.

Dad was in charge of helping James get back up the hill.

And Grandma helping out Alan

There seemed to be a fair number of crashes as well, especially on the races, but everyone was a good sport. :)

And here is an attempt at a few videos that we hope work...

The funny thing was when it was all said and done, the boys just wanted to sled more on the slide (which had an easier way of getting back up. :)

In addition to all the sledding, we had a fun little birthday celebration

And James thoroughly enjoyed the cake. :)

We had a great visit!  Thanks to Grandpa for helping to fix the humidifier and Nate for getting all the snow off of our roof!  (That was quite a project that I can't believe we didn't document via pictures!) We also enjoyed valentines chocolates (marshmallow...I think??), played some great games of Headbanz and Monopoly Deal, and got all the scoop on Downton Abby. :) Thank you, family, for making the trip up here!  We had a blast.