REAL Snow!

When February came, it snowed for real!  At least as far as we South Carolinians are concerned.  We had some fun the first day, then overnight and the next day we got even more snow.  The kids were out of school for several days.  Fortunately the forecast came early enough for us to buy new sleds!

 The first snowman attempt (the previous snow wasn't sticky AT ALL).  This was still grassy and leafy, but not half bad.

Eve was sweeping together as much snow as she could.  I think Ellie was just hanging out.

 Day 2 (or maybe it was day 3 and I didn't take any pictures on day 2?) we went over to Mom's to go sledding.  She had already been out on the slopes for quite a while!

 

 I love their teamwork.

 

 Jake's love of sledding was very short-lived.  He rode once with me, and once with John.  The trip with John did him in, and he wanted nothing more to do with sledding.

 John decided he would rather snowboard.  It started out as a joke, but he actually got to be really good at it.

Here's a view from the top of the hill.  Because I'm such a great mother, I instructed them to bail before falling into the ditch at the bottom of the hill.  I grew up sledding on this hill (as much as one does in the south...maybe 3 or 4 times ever), so I knew the ropes.

 Well, once John was headed down this hill head first and was going too fast to think quickly enough to heed my advice.  He fell head first into the ditch, which is about a 3 foot drop...with shallow cold water in the bottom.  When his head didn't pop right back up, I got nervous and raced down the hill.  I jumped in and called for Buck to help.  He pulled John out.  John was silent and limping, so I was sure something horrible happened.  By the time we got up to the house, though, he was fine.  He was mostly just stunned and COLD!  And muddy.

 See, there's a smile.

 Here's the awesome snowman we built.  He was taller than me!  (and looked mighty handsome in that Clemson scarf, if you ask me)

 All that snow was so fun, but when it melted, I was just done.  It's taken me this long to be able to look through the pictures and not be bothered by the cold.