Family fun in the snow

About 2-3 miles from our house is a string of islands in the St. Lawrence River. In the summer, these islands are filled with campers and swimmers, and you have to pay to drive in for your fun. But in winter you can cross-country ski, snow shoe, hike, sled, or whatever, without paying. The first island has a large hill that is a popular sliding hill. That's where we went this afternoon.

Thanks to the record snowstorm that came through over the weekend and caused us to cancel church services Sunday, there was a LOT of snow on the hill. Here are the few pictures I was able to get before the camera batteries died.















Coming up the hill. You can see the Canadian side of the river at the bottom of the hill.
















Josiah with John and Timothy. We have a shortage of sleds (the tobaggon in the background did not work well, being unwaxed), so Josiah used an extra large trash bag instead. It worked really well, and the little boys really liked it.
















Lizzie getting started on a GT at the top of the hill.
















Lizzie is the small dot at the bottom of the hill. This picture helps you see just how steep/long the hill is.
















Abby, getting started on a snow board.

I wanted to get more shots of them actually coming down the hill, especially some of the upsets at the bottom, but the batteries on the camera died. Lizzie and John came down together on a GT, but John, age 3, is not good at steering a GT. They hit a bump, flew into the air, and came down all tangled up in each other. Lizzie landed on top of John, but the only thing John was mad about was that he got snow on his face. At the same time, Timmy had upset in a tumble I did not witness, so I took both boys to the van to warm up. We drove around the islands for a little while, and my camera batteries revived for one last shot:














This is the St. Lawrence River, looking south to New York state. Barely visible is the part of the river that has not iced over yet. If the weather stays very cold (today was 18 degrees Fahrenheit), the river will probably freeze over.

Next year I want to invest in some cross-country skis.