Sledding Fun With Cousins

On New Year's Eve Susan and I took our kids sledding. It was loads of fun. I'm ashamed to say that this is the first time I've taken the girls out sledding. We've done a bit at the cabin, but on small hills of snow we pile or that fall from the roof. So this was their first experience with a real good sledding hill.

Addison was so excited to try out the new sleds and get some thrills. She was absolutely fearless. As soon as we got to the top of the hill she went for it!
Emian, on the other hand, was quite timid and would only go down if I was on the sled with her. She seemed to enjoy it until I pretty much forced her to go down a hill with a small jump at the bottom. She did not like it one bit. Her two year old cousin, Ellie, loved every minute of any hill. She did not want Susan taking her down, not even the first time.
She even went down the hill with the jump, but with Susan, and wanted to do it many times. Addison couldn't seem to get enough of the jump either.

She just kept going over and over and giggling with every run. Emian finally decided that she would go down a run with Addison. So, of course, the only spill of the day took place as she tried to be brave without mommy. They tipped, Addison landed on Emian, and they slid across the ice with Emian's face carrying the weight. I was at the top and some strangers helped them up while I hurried down.

This picture is almost immediate and quite mild compared to what developed. She had road rash next to her eye, just above her lip and on her chin. Soon after this it started bleeding, which I tried to ignore. Addison came down from another run and couldn't help but blurt, "She's bleeding!" Then the waterworks started again. She doesn't like extra attention, so for the first day or two she wouldn't look at anyone and tried to hide her face (a pretty nasty sore developed next to her eye) and she didn't like people questioning what happened. We were faithful with the

Polysporin and it has healed quite nicely and really quickly.

All in all, we had a lot of fun sledding. Now we are just waiting for fresh snow and fresh air (air quality is horrible right now, among the top 5 worst in the nation) so we can go again. Even Emian wants another go at it!