Our first snow, and sledding accident!

It snowed on Saturday! it wasn't much snow, but enough to make everything pretty (and I forgot to get pictures, of course!) Most of our yard has a lot of trees, so the snow stays longer than anywhere else. Last year we had snow for a full week longer than some of our neighbors because some of our property doesn't see the sun...On Sunday morning the kids decided to go sledding down the hill in the back of our property where a thin layer of snow still remained. Which is where Melissa sustained our first sledding injury for this sledding season.. ..this particular hill that the kids chose to sled down is very steep and was the scene of a very unfortunate accident for Dale last year....

After a pretty good snow storm, some sleet had fallen and made everything very icy...Dale was home with the kids (I forgot where I was) and he decided to go for a walk. There is a path along the back part of our property, but to get to it you have to walk down a steep hill...it is a clear path down the hill, with the exception of a small tree which has grown exactly in the middle of the path....as Dale and the four boys were making their way down the hill last year, they realized it was a sheet of ice and much too slippery to walk down, so they decided to slide down on their bottoms. Shawn and alex went down, and Dale decided to hold David in his left arm and Greg in his right...as he headed down the hill on his bottom holding tight to both boys, he realized he was headed straight for the tree! He quickly thought of his options, he realized that if he went left, then Greg would hit the tree, and if he went right then David would hit the tree...so his only option was to hit the tree straight on! not wanting to break a foot or a leg, he decided to brace for impact with the tree by spreading eagle!....holding the boys tight in each arm, legs spread apart, full impact occured between Dale and the tree!...I was not there, but I imagine that my children probably heard some sounds come out of their father's mouth that they had not heard before...!

as much as I love Dale, even I couldn't contain the laughter when hearing this story! Every time we head down the same hill for a walk, I have often started chuckling(aka laughing uncontrollably!) at the thought of that incident!

Imagine my great suprise when upon questioning Melissa after her sledding injury I learned that the kids had decided to sled down this very hill in which their father's unfortunate injury had occured! I have incredibly smart children, and when I inquired of them as to why they chose THAT hill, the answer was "Shawn wanted to do it" ...yes, Shawn, (who is almost a teenager!) had decided to sled down that hill....I made the statement to Shawn that he really should have learned from his father's experience not to sled down that hill...his response, "Everything was fine until Melissa got hurt." (mind you that was probably 5 minutes after they started sledding!)

We did have a good discussion about this incident, and I am hoping that the lesson has been learned, we do not sled down THAT hill...

The best picture of the hill I could get...(it really is much steeper than it looks)