Lizzy's First Snow

We live in a really cool part of Oregon--there's rarely ever snow on the ground floor here, but the mountains are only a short drive away. In the summer, we live by plenty of lakes and rivers, and the ocean is a half day's drive. Anyway, last Friday we decided to head up with Ryan, Renee, Payton, and Logan to find some snow--taking Lizzy was one of the items on my 101 in 1001 list {so was building a snowman, which we inexplicably did not do!}, and it just sounded fun.

We picked up a snowsuit at a secondhand store--it was 18 month sized and was HUGE on her. She looked like a giant marshmallow.

One of Lizzy's new things is to say "Ooohhhh!" at things she's interested in. I think her mouth was in a perma-O shape the whole time we were there.

Justin decided to take Lizzy sledding. They all made fun of me because I kept saying, "WHY IS HE GOING UP SO HIGH?!?" But you have to understand that the last time I went sledding with Justin, he decided that using the rear endcap of an RV as a sled would be a good idea, and consequently got like 6 staples in his head.

As you can see, Lizzy was not too sure about sledding either. And for good reason...they crashed. Not too badly, and Justin kept a hold of her, but it still made me squirm. Renee thought Lizzy hit her head on the snow. It looked to me like Justin's shoulder was under her, but we went over to the boys to check her out. Justin insisted that Lizzy only hit his shoulder. Half of me wanted to pack her up and take her to the ER just to make sure she didn't have whiplash or a concussion or something, but I do trust Justin. And Lizzy was happy as a lark (she didn't even cry when they crashed), so I think she was okay. I mean, the kid cries any time she trips into our very plush couch, or anytime we go over a bump in the road in the car. She cried earlier that day when she tried to walk in the snow and fell. So if she wasn't crying, it must not have jarred her or scared her that much.

{PS- If you would have rushed to the ER anyway, please just keep that little tidbit to yourself...this is the part where I need fellow mom assurance that she is just fine...even though she obviously is since it's four days later !}

I really didn't want to sled. I don't have any snow pants that fit, so I was just in jeans. And I knew that if I didn't get hurt, I'd at least be wet and miserable the whole way home. But, for some reason, I agreed to go once. And I'm glad I did. Justin was really happy that I went, and seeing his excitement totally made it worth it to me. Sometimes, I think that without realizing it, because of tending to Lizzy, or knowing that I'm clumsy and don't want to get hurt, or now because of being self-conscious in lots of different ways, I can sometimes be a little bit of a spoil sport. Maybe not a spoil-sport, but I find myself on the sidelines just watching more than I did before Lizzy. It isn't intentional, but I think it can happen nonetheless.

For some reason, her hat kept twisting so that my poor seaming job was front and center. I have no idea why, but it drove me crazy! 

Another thing that drove me crazy? There was another lady up in by the sledding hill who had a Canon 20D. Way nicer than my camera. And she obviously had NO idea how to use it. In fact, I'm pretty sure she was shooting in full auto...her on-board flash often went off when there was NO need to use it in those conditions. I know sometimes people are told to use a flash when it's snowy and overcast, but it was just not needed. And even if she was trying to use it as a fill flash or something, her subject was several hundred yards away, so it probably wouldn't have helped much anyway.

The little green jealousy monster comes out every now and again...it kills me when people spend upwards of $1000 on a camera and obviously don't take the time to learn how to make it best work!

Anyway, enough of the ranting...overall, it was such a fun day. I'm so glad we went! I can't wait to take Lizzy up in the snow again as she continues to get older!