The slippery slope

It was an afterthought during my usual Friday grocery run to Wal-Mart. I was lured into the store's overflow space at the sight of 75% off holiday merchandise signs. On the way out (a pack of $1.50 gift card boxes in hand, now just .38 cents!), I was forced to walk by an aisle filled with sleds and snow tubs. Hmm... that gave me an idea.

Not even an hour earlier I was watching a dismal weather forecast for Mount Vernon that included 5–7 inches of snow and freezing rain. It seemed to me at that moment in Wal-Mart that I was destined to walk by the snow toys. So I caved to the pressure and picked up a $10 snow tube meant for little people. My thought was that it was high time Noah enjoyed his first run down a snowy hill.

So daylight dawned today to about 2 inches of snow on the ground, and several hours of freezing rain that added a chunky layer of ice on top. I was dismayed but felt good that we'd see more snow later today. Apparently, I didn't bother to check in with the news cast; the winter storm warnings were cancelled. We would see, at best, a few more sleet showers and call it done.

The lack of powder, though, did not deter my husband. When he suggested to Noah that he try on his brand-new snow boots (a secondary purchase in light of the snow tube), Noah became hell-bent on getting outdoors. The process went just as I remembered it when I was kid: I spent 20 minutes getting Noah bundled up and myself into suitable outdoor gear, and we went down the hill about four times. All that work for a combined total of 5 minutes, tops.

But, it was a hoot to watch my baby boy fly down our yard's gentle hills. He was ice-aided, so he did get up to a decent speed. See for yourself:

As we were bundling, I had good intentions of enjoying the outdoors and then coming inside to make a batch of piping hot chocolate. But once we peeled off our layers, our sweaty masses seemed to prefer icy cold milk instead.


Now that we've got a few runs under our belt, I can see that the snow tube will become a popular attraction this winter when we're all going a little stir crazy.