Ice and Snow

We finished up our Christmas weekend by a little ice skating trip over to Aunt Terry's pond. The trip was prompted by the fact that I had forgotten to bring some gifts over on the Friday night pizza extravaganza and didn't want the Bentley children to have to wait one more second for their gifts. Also my kids were driving me crazy and I thought that if they could run around on some ice for a little while they would get all tuckered out and spend the rest of the day in blissful post-Christmas harmony. Then I woke up from that dream and took them over to Terry's house.

Here they are with Uncle Ray and Carver the almost service dog. Terry's pond was frozen with NO snow on it, and as anyone who has ever skated on a pond that has snow on it knows, that just rocks! Ray bravely skated across the ice to make sure that the ice was safe for children and dogs:

Terry bravely donned ice skates and even skated backwards. I stayed on the dock and took pictures. I am not brave.

This is how Hannah and Liz spent much of the morning. And they weren't wearing skates either. Luckily Carver the Almost Service Dog ran to their rescue:

Shelby showed Lizzie how to play hockey with a walnut as a puck:

Lizzie literally ran around the ice again and again and again:

Here are the ducklings following Aunt Terry on skates:

And here they are falling down:

Hannah congratulating herself for not falling (one time) when Lizzie did fall:

Lizzie got very cold and needed to stand by the fire in the wood stove to warm up:

Then they BOTH needed hot chocolate to continue the defrosting process:

And then the next day it SNOWED which probably ruined the ice, but made the kids and our dog very very happy. Here's Lizzie with Cash:

And Hannah with Cash. Hannah actually went outside to get the dog untangled from the *#(*&(*&)!@ Japanese Maple tree that he gets tangled in EVERY SINGLE TIME he runs around outside. I'm pretty sure once it thaws a little I will be taking a saw to the Japanese Maple.

Happy puppy in the snow:

THE ABOMINABLE SNOW DOG!! EVERYONE RUN!!!!! HE'S FROZEN AND HE LIKES TO JUMP!!!!