Muscle Fatigue

You'd have thought I'd be used to this by now. I'd have thought after 5.5 years of parenting and 14 years of being with Eric (you heard me!) that I'd have toughened up or something.

Nope.

My face hurts.

From grinning from ear to ear.

Apparently I don't smile enough.

We went sledding right before the last snowstorm (only a few inches, we're not buried again), right after a bunch of it finally started melting. There were even patches of muddy earth visible on the slope we were about to hurl ourselves down. It was - dare I say it? - warm out. This is usually an indicator that things are about to get really frickin' cold soon (Negative OH MY GOD! I'm not going out there! degrees) in another day. But there we were, finally in possession of Caitlin's new sled from Pop-Pop and Nana-Sue that got massively delayed by the previous two storms.

There we were, facing what seemed to be a Very Steep Hill. Caitlin was all bundled up and wearing a helmet. Eric and I were bundled up and internally fretting: is that hill Too Steep? Are we Insane? Who gets to go down first? Do I really want to walk up the Very Steep Hill?

We started off with one of us going down with her for a couple of runs. We might only have done one run apiece when she announced she was ready to do it on her own. We let her go and she went hurtling off into space, zipped down the hill, somehow managed to spin around backwards while sliding downhill and came safely to a stop at the bottom. Man, that thing can fly! It was awesome! I went down with her squealing and shrieking and we spun around backwards and slipped down the hill. I have no idea why she and I kept spinning around, I tried to stop the spin but when it instead felt like we were about to flip over, I let the spin happen. It was scary/fun to suddenly look back up the hill at Eric and wave.

We were soaked before very long. Caitlin flipped over once or twice and into the mud at least once which she thoroughly disliked. Eric and I even squeezed onto the Flexible Flyer together once and went whipping downhill.

I laughed so hard my face and ribs ached.

Sledding: it's what's for dinner!

Exhausted, we trudged back up the hill and went home for a hot bath and warm food.

Life is good!