Snow Days in Colorado

Sledding Day
Above Ouray

This was the week after Christmas, before Dominic had to go back to the seminary and Dan had to go back to work...  I stayed home for this field trip and let them bond, while I took the chance to clean the  Christmas-traumatized house (with noone there to immediately destroy it behind me)...

Here's a shot of the "amphitheater" above the tiny town of Ouray, Colorado.  The sledding gang actually headed to the hills behind the camera person, west of this shot...

Up near these craggy peaks.

So, it seems the gang (Dominic, Michelle, Theresa, Cathy, Anna,
Gabe,  William, and their Dad)  found an unused, uncleared road, near Box Canyon Falls....

"It was so much fun, Mommy!"  "It was perfectly safe, Mom!"  "It was a good spot, dear. Nothing to worry about."
Uhuh.

But, the facts of the field trip came out later, when they admitted it was probably a good thing I didn't go or they'd have ended up sledding on a lump at the playground.  As the details (and the pictures) downloaded, I learned that, for one thing,  there was a street with some traffic on it at the bottom of the hill.  See Dan waaaaay down there?  It was his job to stop the sled as it came flying down toward the road.  Brave man.  Nut.

And there was a steep drop off on one side with a frozen creek down at the bottom of it.  

But, it was all good, Mom!  See?  We made it out alive!
(See the snow-encrusted eyelashes?!  Crazy people!)

And now for your consideration, a wintery poem:

Snowball

by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head.
Then, last night it ran away.
But first -- it wet the bed.

(Heehee!)  Happy snow days, friends!
(This poem was 'specially for you, William and Gabe...)