Back-to-back sledding days, made even better by having a friend over!

The kids had gone with the wife to sled at the park yesterday. They met a couple of the older's schoolmates, barely overlapping, for a couple hours of hill time.

Today she wanted to meet with one of them again, so we did. The boy decided he'd rather play on the computer and keep mom company, so the "olders" (as we call the older parent and older kid) went to the park while the "youngers" (you can see how this works) stayed home. For completeness, we call the adults the "bigs" and the kids "littles" when we group on those lines.

We stopped by to pick the friend up, and before we got out of the Jeep, she was dashing from her front door dragging her sleds with. She's got the Griswold special kind, the little spinning circles, where we've got the traditional long sled style. We packed the sleds in the back and settled in for the two block drive to the park.

They slid down the hill once, trekked up, and slid again. Then they stayed at the bottom, near the fluffy snow beyond where the sleds had gone, and assembled some snow animals. They frolicked and laughed and had a blast, so whatever.

I paced back and forth at the top of the hill, wishing they'd put some benches there for non-sledding parents to be able to get off their feet. I was wearing boots, but the ground was still cold and uneven, and the few trees not easy to lean against... Sure, standing is good for you, but by the second hour, I was ready for a seat, but not ready enough to plop onto the ground or resign myself to sitting in the car where I couldn't keep my eyes on them.

When they finished their small zoo, they ran up the hill and sledded down a few more times. Then they asked if they could have some hot cocoa and make some snow animals at our house. I tapped a quick ask to the other child's parents, and they were cool with that. So we set out for the few block drive to our house.

Yes, we can walk to the park, and often do. However, having done this for the last few years, I have come to realize that any trip requiring gear, like sleds or balls or bikes, invariably results in parents lugging that stuff back as the kids are too tired to manage. Since we have a trio of our own sleds, and a pair of our friend's sleds, the Jeep was a must.

When we got into the house, they realized how cold it was. Compared to other recent days, it wasn't bad, somewhere in the high 20°F range. But inside was like tropically warm. They settled in for some cocoa and television to warm up. Some toys got played with. Rooms were shown off. Dogs got annoying, and mostly settled down, with the new person. First friend over in about a year!

Just before other parents came to fetch, the kids wanted to sled down our "hill" in front of our house. Our porch is 22 feet away from the sidewalk that borders the street. The sidewalk and street are separated with a mound of snow from the plows covering the boulevard. The boulevard should be wider, for the amount of snow that ends up there, but it isn't. So 25 feet from the mound is the porch. They didn't sled off the porch, but from some feet closer to the street. Their run was probably about 15 feet long. On that run, it's a drop of just about four feet, so not a very ambitious hill.

Still, it was fun enough, especially with the invariable little surf-splash up the boulevard mound at the end. They laughed and chased, and tried to make it faster and longer.

Tomorrow school starts in person. The friends will be able to see each other every day. We stretched our bubble a day early, and it seemed all worth it. I think we've forgotten now neat friends are to have over.

Everyone is healthy.