Sledding in Pulaski Park

Every year we take the kids sledding, and I'm sure I've posted pics of it here before. Even so a quick scan of the site found only this.

A week ago last Friday Milwaukee was buried under a foot of snow. School was cancelled for the first time in 9 years, and it was pretty nasty. Lis got stuck and had to dig her way out for nearly a half hour, and my Dad got stuck in the parking lot entrance at work - with half his car hanging out in a major city street.

That night YaYa had a sleepover with her friend Sophia. They watched Polar Express (not half as bad as I remembered - pretty good, minus the gratuitous hot chocolate song) and in the morning we took them and the family to Pulaski Park to go sledding.

We started off on the 'small' hills to the east of the monster hill.

Now, I was definitely NOT in favor of sending our 21 month old down the hill by his lonesome, but  . .

After a few trial runs with Lis on board, he went solo:

By the end of that trip (and several others) he was cold, wet, had a face covered in dripping snot - and wouldn't stop gesturing and grunting to go again and again.

Here's some individual shots. I love YaYa's hat, which she's had for years. I'm going to retire it to my future museum someday:

The worst part about sledding (aside from the risk of personal injury, the loss of personal property such as keys/phones, and the mind numbing fear of both of these things) is climbing back up the dang hill.

It's no secret this isn't my favorite activity, but it isn't like I haven't done it every dang year for the last, oh, three decades or so. So obviously I'm both capable and unafraid of it; I just don't dig it that much. I try to NOT get cold and wet most days; why volunteer for it ?

My goal now is to do it just long enough for all the kids to have memories of me sledding with them. After that, I'm just a spectator, least til the Grandkids come around.

Here's my post-sledding view (and Lis didn't even have to force me!)

Here's Park again

At the tail end of the excursion YaYa wanted to go down the big hill, which in my youth we called Suicide Hill.

It's been largely tamed now; the trees surrounding it have been cut back or removed, the grade has been flattened somewhat, and most of the  'bumps'  have been removed, but it's still pretty imposing.

She's up on the hilltop; this is the top half of the hill

and the bottom

She's the lavender speck in these pictures:

She and Sophia went down together at one point

and Lis took Lu down with her; brave little girls. Here's some pics of an exhausted YaYa, with snow pants coming undone lol:

A pretty good time and a beautiful use for the snow!