Friday, February 26, 2010

Cross-country skis

So, getting back in the swing of things... This winter our area has gotten more snow than it has since the 1890's. This is all old news by now, but I thought I'd share a couple of photos of one of the activities we enjoyed during the snow.

We've had our cross-country skis for a few years, but only managed to use them a couple of times at the farm since our town is pretty good about plowing the roads. All that changed during this series of snows. The top photo shows my set-up with the baby. We are on our street during the initial snowfall-- this was before things got really bad and deep. Skiing on the street was pretty easy; the roads are relatively flat and I think the falling snow was distracting Baby H enough that he wasn't doing too much wiggling. A nice leisurely ski with Brian and only a few minor hiccups (like the house where they got a little snowblower-happy).
Fast-forward a week. With the same set-up, I took Baby H out into the "wilds" of Loudoun County, skiing with my friends Karen and Helen at a farm near Karen's house. This was probably more fun, but definitely much harder. First off, there were hills. When I would settle into chair pose to navigate down a slight incline, the baby would throw himself forward (see below--this was during one of our re-mounting adventures) or to the side, asserting his independence, and it was really hard to stay balanced. I think we fell three or four times. It was hard to get back up because without the skis, my legs sunk through the snow, sometimes up to the hip where snow had drifted. But Helen and Karen were troupers and pulled me out of more than one drift. The baby was a sport too, really, and only cried once. I think he was just taking it all in.

All in all, I'm really glad we got out there despite our limitations (small child, less-than-usually-coordinated mama). And it makes a great story to tell Henry someday about the Great Snow of 2010.