Sledding on Mt. Hood

It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we decided to go to Mt Hood.  Driving there, we got more and more excited about how beautiful it was!

 

Once we found a parking spot and got all the kids dressed in their snow clothes (it was warm enough that the babies had snow pants, boots, a sweatshirt, and a rain coat).  

 

We began sledding down a hill toward a small river, but after a ride or two toward the river (and Jared having to stop Claire on the tube from going into the river), we decided it would be better to go up a bit further and we packed everyone up and tracked a little further up toward the hill.  Carrying babies is tiring!!!  So we decided to try bringing Kate on the sled.

We liked putting both Kate and Liam in the tube, running them 15-20 yards up the hill, letting them go and catching them at the bottom.  They though it was hilarious!  Also, after a little while on the hill, they began to refuse to wear their gloves.  Given it was 45 degrees, we didn't push it too much.

Claire and Jacob had their own unique ways of going down the hill on the sled.  Claire LOVED the sled, though we couldn't get a picture of Claire upright on her sled - she loved to wipe out!  Once, though, we couldn't find her, only to look downhill a little ways where she was waiting quietly for us to find out how far she went.  Jacob liked to get started on the sled, and then lay down.  It looked really funny to watch!

When Claire wasn't going on her sled, she found other ways to go down the hill.

We took turns going with various groups on the tube.  The tube was really slick and went fast.  Even though we really didn't have much vertical or slope in our hill (which was preferred for our 18 month olds), we got up to a fun speed with the babies.

The last time Kate and Liam were around snow, they were 4 months old, so Kate and Liam did a little discovering in the snow.  Liam liked picking it up with his bare hands and throwing it.  Kate discovered a little snowman (which she called, excitedly, "bear!").

 

It was a great day, topped off with some Dairy Queen on the way home!