Injuries at City Forest (...sort of)

The Toboggan Track at Midland City Forest

Merry Almost-Christmas, folks.

The Houghs decided to take advantage of the sunshine and relatively warm weather today (low 30s)  and hit up the Midland City Forest for some sledding.  This is arguably the best place in town to sled, and it was our intention to utilize their Toboggan track on this particular outing, but Kris left the vouchers for the track on the kitchen counter, so we cut our losses and just stuck to main hill instead.  We only ended up at the City Forest for about an hour or so, as an 'injury' (see below) forced us inside to warm up and convalesce for a bit, and then the girls didn't want to head back out afterwards, so we just went home.

Sooooo yeah.  Here's some pictures of our family sliding down a local hill on cheap pieces of plastic.

Enjoy.

Maiden Sled Run of the 2017 - 2018 season.

The tracks are separated into individual runs, which is nice - I'm sure it cuts back on collisions and injuries.  That's Abby marching up the hill on the right.

It takes a lot of talent to to fall out of a sled while it's resting on flat, level ground.  Abby's pretty much a pro at falling over.

This black sled is a lot of fun, though not the best to use when there's a 110-pound difference in riders' weight.

The Suicide Squad

Abby had her hand underneath the side of her sled on one of the later runs, and after hitting a bump in the hill her sled went airborne before crashing back down on her fingers.  When I say 'airborne,' of course, I mean it went off the ground by a few inches, and when I say 'crashed,' I mean it pressed down on her hand (which had no business being under her sled in the first place.)   Abby's finger 'injury' was enough to force her off the hill and into the City Forest chalet (or whatever the hell you call them.)

Getting some boo-boo analysis.

Can you see it, there?  On the knuckle of her middle finger?  That's what forced us off the hill today.  After a mere hour of sledding.

Who the hell are these stockings for?  Does Santa to come to the Midland City Forest when no one's around and fill these stockings up?  This seems like a waste of the Fat Man's time to me.

Kris tries and convincing the girls to toughen the f*** up and head back out on the hill.  We were having a blast, and most of the last hour was spent in hooded sweatshirts because the weather was so nice out (plus walking up that hill so frequently when you're out of shape is a bit of a workout, and you're sweating so much you definitely don't need a winter coat.)

Abby whined until we relented and went home, and immediately, while sitting on a couch watching Netflix,  her finger was fine.  I hate kids.

They have an ice skating rink there, too, and as we were heading back to the van with our sleds in tow, the girls asked to go ice skating, which, unlike sledding, costs money.  Financing that wouldn't be an issue, of course, but I'm sure after one fall the girls would want to go home and recuperate from their traumatic experience. . . and I'm not down with throwing money away unnecessarily.  If it's one thing I learned today, it's that a perfectly good afternoon can get ruined by a lack of testicles:  my children would not have survived the '80s.

- Brian