Midnight Sledding

After three days of fresh snow, I had a strong urge to go play. It snowed all day yesterday, and it was so beautiful out that it just seemed to be calling my name to go out and do something fun. We don't own a snow mobile, so that was out, and our cross country skis are in Sandpoint at my parents house. So, I just got ready to go to Friday night service at our church and kind of put the idea on hold. After church, we came home and ate some soup, and I told my hubby that I wanted to go sledding or something. It was already 9:00, and I think he thought I was crazy. Unfortunately, I didn't have any snow pants, so anything out in the snow for too long would leave me very wet and cold. So, we went in to Walmart and after looking everywhere logical for a pair of snow pants, we finally found them back by the kids clothes. We then remembered that we don't have a sled, so we start a search for sleds in the store, to which we find they are completely sold out. However, they have their gardening stuff out, as does Lowe's and many other businesses I was in yesterday. We are one week into winter and all the winter items are gone, but the lawn mowers, weed eaters, and everything gardening is out. Maybe if we didn't have two feet of snow on the ground, people would think more about gardening, but most the people I came across yesterday were looking for winter items, only to be told 'Sorry, we are out.' Anyway back to sledding. So, we finally left the store around 10:30, and I said it was kind of pointless to buy the pants because we didn't have a sled. My hubby remembered that we bought inter tubes last year to float the river, and we could pump them up and sled. Woo Hoo! I don't think I've been sledding in at least fifteen years, which I must add is way too long to wait! We drove around looking for a hill, but when you live on the prairie, sometimes finding a hill is a challenge. We finally found a hill in a new subdivision, where houses haven't been built yet and they have dug part of the hillside out for soil for the new houses up above. It took a couple times down to get the run packed, but after that, it was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful evening for sledding at midnight. The skyline was deep blue, with hues of blue gray and light blue intermixed. The snow fell on us the entire time we were there. We had our dog along, and she would run after us all the way down the hill and bark. I think she had as much fun as we did. Poor thing did have a bit of a problem with snowballs on her fur, though, and it took about half an hour to get the majority of them off before we finally got to bed at 1:30. I think it is a night we will both remember for a long time. We laughed a lot and it was just fun to be out in the complete stillness and quiet, enjoying an hour of acting like kids again.