Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sledding Fun!

Yesterday we went on a sledding outing with our friend Mr. Reiche for Josiah's birthday. We have been wanting to try out this new hill we heard of recently but never had the opportunity, or the park was not open due to the harsh weather conditions until yesterday.




Heading to the hill.

I stayed at the entrance to grab some fast action pictures while everyone else headed up to the top and gave great exclamations of amazement as to how steep the hill looked...we soon found out how bumpy it was too!

The birthday boy went down first on the tube. We quickly realized that the tube was pretty much the only thing you could get all the way down on because of how bumpy the slope was!


Josh ended up outside his sled about half way down most of the time. Then Faith and Christianna would follow and the same thing would happen resulting in shouts of frustrations from them and laughter from us at the top because of how comical they looked! =)

Heading back up.

The view from the top. You can't see them but this part of the hill had the appearance of a mogul slope with all the lumps on it!

Christianna zooming down. She finally made it all the way down by finding a path that skirted the bumps.




The toboggan made a few runs down on the less used side of the hill.


Sorry Josh! You should have heard him afterwards though! He wanted to come back and bring all his friends...to experience the thrills of getting bruised I guess. =)


This picture was a chance capture. Check out the flying ball cap!!

They finally persuaded me to take a ride down. Unfortunately we were not allowed to use snowboards and I wasn't about to kill myself on the moguls so I took the "train" instead.

Taking a break from sledding we took a walk through the woods surrounding the hill to find the skating pond.
The birthday boy!






After a few more runs down the hill we headed on home...thankfully without any injuries to speak of then though today everyone is announcing their many found bruises! However, I'm sure we will be back for a visit again soon and bring some friends to share in the adventures at Suicide Hill!

The boy king turns 14!

Cows, tractors, chickens and barns...these are just a few of the things that have been filling the mind of the youngest in the family lately! So in honor of his birthday we tried our best to accommodate his interests and make his 14th birthday a special one.


Christianna designed and decorated (along with some help from Mom) this Jersey cow cake!


The farmer boy and his cow!




For dinner we made his favorite meal (when he was younger he used to help cook and this was his meal) of "Pigs in a blanket", baked beans and jell-O.


Opening gifts! Another one of his past times is puzzle-ing!


Josh was the photographer for this event and was snapping pictures...

...of the gift givers and receiver.

We don't believe in dating...but Josiah sure breaks that rule as he would love to have a date everyday! ;-) Charity's gift to him was a whole box of pitted whole dates!


Josiah with the jean quilt I made for him.


Remember this picture? Christianna created this friendly fella in a fun way to present several of the gifts at the end of a treasure hunt she made for Josiah. The farmer boy is now all set to dress in style in his brand new overalls, flannel shirt and straw hat.
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Happy Birthday Josiah Thomas!
May God bless you with many more years to come and may He give you courage to stand up for His Word, be a true man of God and live for His glory!
Love you little brother!
~Grace