Sledding the North Ogden Divide

Best Sled Hill Ever! On Saturday we took the girls to redeem Kenzie's Road To Reading coupons at Costa Vida. They hated it. But then we went sledding up on the Divide and they loved us again. At first, I was afraid it was a bust. We can usually handle about one activity a day before a major melt down, and lunch seemed to have been it. Hannah and Ellie fell asleep in the van on the way up to the Divide and we almost bagged it, but Kenzie was so excited and we had already packed up all the gear and were there, so we decided to see what would happen.

Kenzie is getting old enough that she's not as reliant on us to entertain her. She gets excited independently. We didn't have to convince her that sledding is fun. When we got there she geared up all by herself and headed out to enjoy the slight incline at the head of the trail with Mike while I stayed in the van to dress Ellie and wait for the sleeping dragon to wake.

When Hannah woke up she threw the expected fit. She just wanted her pillow. And no! (angry crying) She would not get dressed! But then when she saw what fun Kenzie was having, and when I told her it was just fine if she stayed in the van, she decided it was in her best interest to ask me nicely to help her get her snowpants on. Phew. After we got that out of the way, it was lots of fun. 

Ellie being shielded from a fierce wind  by Mike.

Here the girls are chasing a run away sled next to the road.

This wasn't really a sled hill, just a mild incline, parallel to the road. It was fun, but the wind was fierce and it was cold. So we decided to go check out the real sled hill up above the parking lot. 

Ellie was pretty good all snuggled up in her snowsuit and she rode in the backpack for the first time. If you do any hiking with a baby backpack, you need to get the Deuter Kid Comfort II Backpack. It's so amazingly comfortable. It's pricey, but less pricey than a chiropractor. It beats the Snugli and other cheap backpack carriers hands down.  My vertebrae thank me every time I put it on.

The real sled hill at the Divide is a rocking roller coaster that is probably a half mile long. I don't know how long it really is. We didn't dare go to the top for fear of garage sale-ing down the mountain. When we walked over to that hill it was shielded from the wind and we had it all to ourselves! Here's Kenzie enjoying her first run on just the bottom part of the hill.

Hannah loving it on the bottom of the hill.

Happy Hannah.

I was reluctant to let Kenzie go much higher than just the bottom hill. Sledding is fun, but I picture heads hitting trees and bodies crunching against hard snow if the hill is too long. Mike used to sled on this hill with his cousins, so he was a little more optimistic about the outcome. Here Mike and Kenzie test out the roller coaster bumps. We only rode the first three bumps. See how far it stretches behind them? Someday when we have helmets and feel a little more confident maybe we'll try it. Right now I fear for my children's brains too much. We didn't sustain any injuries, although we did crash into the outhouse at the bottom a couple times (the outside walls, not into the actual toilet) and Kenzie rolled off once. I love our tube. The little green sled is not as nice on the bottom, if you know what I mean.

The girls didn't even whine about having to walk back up the hill, and they even carried their own sleds (sometimes). 

We even saw a moose across the mountain, that Kenzie spotted. It's that little tiny black dot above the air escape on the outhouse. Fun stuff!