Y Guides Winter Campout

Ben and Annabel enjoyed a fun weekend with Y Guides at the Winter Campout at Camp Tecumseh. It was a very cold weekend for them, but they were prepared to bundle up, winter gear, extra blankets and all. It even snowed in the wee hours of Sunday, so they woke up to a whiter world. So fun for them! This is the camp that has the candle making, indoor climbing wall, horseback riding, tube slide, archery, and so on, so they were kept quite busy! Annabel enjoyed the time with her friend Aggie, too. It was a great camping weekend for Daddy and Annabel! Annabel loved the chance to use her hiking sticks, too. They came home pretty exhausted but with lots of stories! They are already looking forward to the next campout in May.

Daniel and I held down the fort at home eating leftovers one night, watching 2 movies that night (The Hunt for Red October, which bored him to death, and Mission Impossible 2), spending an afternoon at Bricks & Minifigs the second day, playing with said Legos, eating burgers at That Burger Joint followed by ice cream at Oberweis, and another two movies (Enemy of the State and Mission Impossible 3). Sunday we woke up to very snowy grounds (I had to shovel a LOT!) but blue skies, and knowing Ben and Annabel were going to be much later (because it was still very much blustery windy snowy on the highways by them and therefore taking forever to get home), we watched yet another movie after building more Legos, this time Mission Impossible 4. It was a fun weekend just us two, as it was for the two adventurers!

Saturday fun...Early morning to late night!

Snowy Sunday morning!

Wintry Walk at the Arboretum

I decided this past long weekend that we could all use some fresh air and a good long walk in the snow, so we headed to the Arboretum to do just that. It was lovely. Cold, sure, but absolutely lovely. We made a really good walking loop, crunching in the snow all the way. I'm so glad we made this outing! It was an excellent way to spend a day off from school.

Sledding Fun!

When Josie came to sleep over, we were expecting a LOT of snow, so we had Josie bring her snow gear so we could go sledding. My kids were SO excited that she would be here to join our sledding fun. We were glad the timing was so perfect for this!

AND- Josie told us she'd never been sledding either, and sure enough, Amelia confirmed this, so that was extra fun- to be the first to take her sledding! I think she had a great time! The kids all did. They made many many sled runs down the hill, alone, together on one sled, all at the same time together on their own sleds, they made snow angels and I even went down with Josie on her sled, too. Annabel and I went down, too, as did Ben and Annabel. And I loved how Josie would get to the bottom and give us a thumbs up before she got up- it was so cute! Also, when Josie and I went down together, she had her arms up in the air the entire time- so fun! She did that with Daniel, too. You could see she was building up the fun and getting more comfortable as our hour of sledding went on and that was really fun to witness and be a part of.

Josie said it was a lot of fun, but did comment that walking back up wasn't fun and it would be nice "if we could just rewind back up." Google sent me an animated GIF later that day and what did they do...they rewound back up the hill for Josie! I thought it was hilarious and sent it to Amelia and Josie immediately! It was the perfect GIF after Josie made that comment. 

Enjoy the pictures! Off we go...

Josie is ready to sled!!

There goes Daniel! He gets longer and longer every year. Happens when they get taller, doesn't it?

Josie wanted to try going on her belly this time- Uncle Ben helped her launch off!

All the cousins go together!!

Josie and Annabel go down!

Annabel head first and on her back!

There goes Annabel!

See what I mean? So long!!

Another run down for Annabel!

Josie makes a snow angel! I love seeing the imprints kids make. There's something about it that's so sweet.

There goes Josie again!! She's having fun!

Annabel went down on her knees. She loves mixing it up, that's for sure.

My turn with Josie! She had her arms up the whole time!

 My turn with Annabel now!

 Daniel and Josie are ready to go!

Ben and Annabel take a turn!

And now for video fun!! First up, Josie sledding!!

Next we have all the cousins going down together!

 

 

Josie and Annabel sledding together now!

Look closely...Josie gives a thumbs up at the end here!! So cute!

 

 And now Josie and Daniel sled together! Arms up- love it!! She did that the whole way down, too.