Frolicking in the Snow

Snow IS magic

  . . . especially for children, but not excluding the adults.

My goddaughter Victoria had the brilliant idea of making a snow fort. 

Kelty pitched in, not only with the shoveling but the digging of the cavern.

Below, she is inside the cavity, scooping out snow, only her legs and feet showing.

There were seven of us making merry in the glorious white stuff:

The Adults (relative term): Ginger, Kelty, Vic

The Grandchildren: Kenneth, Grace, Rella, and, for a short time, baby Grace Ginger.

Living on a mountainside has a wintertime advantage -

a perfect sledding hill.

Well, mostly perfect.

If you don't veer to the right, you'll hit into the pyracantha bushes.  Think thorns.

Older kids are able to make to navigate it, even at high speeds . . . but not the younger ones.

In comes Kelty to the rescue!

She hung onto the sled going down on her belly, 

shifted the course of the sled midway down, 

then heaved it forward

and let go, amid squeals of pure joy mixed with terror.

After thirty minutes of being hurled down the mountain on her belly,

Kelty changed her approach.

She used her KNEES.

You can gauge her tremendous speed by seeing the snow flying above her right knee.

See arrow.

All the children screamed "Again! Again!" when they reached the bottom.

Audrey was STILL screaming it after the 12,486th time.

Once again, notice the knee work.  

Pressing down on the right knee helped her make the critical turn.

We spent most of that day out playing in the snow,

after which we felt satisfyingly tired.

By the next morning, another round of white stuff had fallen.

Then there was WORK to do.

However, even THAT was a pleasure for Mr. Kenneth.