On Saturday we packed up the kids and took them up to go sledding at Mt. Baker! We never know if at any time we will be heading back to Seattle Children’s so we are trying to take advantage of all the available time we have home with the kids (especially knowing Oliver’s stem cell infusion was coming up on Monday). We looked at the ski report before we left (the ski area is not open yet) and it looked like there was enough snow for sledding. As we got closer and closer to the top we started to get nervous because there was hardly any snow on the ground. Thankfully at the very top there was about 6” of snow!

Once again we learned the lesson the hard way about making sure that we have the right equipment for the kids. Eliza had snow boots for the season but we hadn’t gotten Oliver snow boots yet. We put wool socks on him and shoved his feet in his size 6 rain boots. (The kids are getting new rain boots for Christmas because Oliver is really in size 9 shoe now). Oliver had a total meltdown and was saying, “Ouch, feet!” We ended up trading shoes with Eliza (who has smaller feet than Oliver) and the kids were happy as could be the rest of the time! I went and bought snow boots for Oliver from a thrift store for $7 as soon as we got home.

We got a new sled from Costco this year which was really fast! We also got both kids snow suits from Costco this year which have been really nice even just for going on the playground at night with to stay warm. Eliza kept asking if she could go on the “slow sled” because she was scared of the Costco one. We had an old cheap plastic sled along too that we have used the past few years.

The parking lot was surprisingly full for this early in the season! There were quite a few snowshoers, some sledders, and some people hiking up with skis and skins. It was a great day for sledding because it was clear and 31 degrees so we weren’t too cold. Even with the busyness of the parking lot, we were able to walk about 100 yards away from the parking lot and have a perfect sledding hill completely to ourselves!

If you are wanting to go sledding I would totally recommend going now before it gets too crazy busy on the weekends at the ski area! It feels so good to get the kids outside seeing the mountains, feeling the different textures, and using their muscles for play!