Extreme Sledding!

I was quite disappointed when it started raining on Saturday because that was the day Angela had invited a group of us to go sledding near her home in Idaho. Amy, Elizabeth, Beth, and I all piled into Katrina's van and made our soggy way towards Coeur d'Alene with dim thoughts of mushy wet snow and mud. But we would be with friends, and that was still something to look forward to.

We arrived at Angela's beautiful home, were greeted by her wonderful parents, "brother" Nurbeck, and friend Eric, and her very friendly cat Midnight. After pulling on our snow gear and re-assigning ourselves to cars we followed Eric on a mysterious journey into increasingly treacherous mountainous territory. Rain turned to snow. Katrina amazed us all by navigating up the slick roads to the parking lot. And we got out and followed Eric up what I can only describe as a mountain path. It was quite arduous. Once we got to the top and collapsed from the steep ascent Eric looked at us brightly and said "Who wants to be first?"

Now, let's be clear. I was under the impression that the harrowing mountain path was simply a way to get to our destination, which would be a treeless sledding hill on the other side. But the mountain path was the sledding hill, and let me tell you right now that it looked to me exactly like a bob sled course. We all kind of gazed down the steep gradation and the twisting white path that carved its way through the trees and I found myself wondering if one of us might die. But Eric, happy as a puppy on Christmas, hopped on his sled to go first because "it would make it faster for the rest of us." We all said a silent prayer.

I may be over-dramatizing slightly, but not much. It actually was probably the most fun I've had sledding in my entire existence. I'm simply used to sledding out on the farm, which is impressive enough on the rolling hills of the Palouse. But we don't have trees everywhere. And we're not in the mountains. It was tremendously fun though, and we had several snowball fights in between sled runs while catching our breath, and Katrina made a snowgirl that looked like she was from Fraggle Rock which I've never actually seen really. We even made a couple of "sled chains" which fell apart quickly and surprisingly didn't cause any major injuries. We were all completely soaked by the time we came back, but Angela's mom (who is one of the most amazing mom's on the planet) made us amazing chile with cornbread and salad and cookies to follow. And we played one of the most creative games of telepictionary known to mankind. All in all, it was altogether too much fun, which is generally the case when you start feeling like your 8-years-old again.