Sledding in Clare

Alayna and Abby, en route to Clare.

What's up, gang.

So it had been awhile since we got out of town and visited family, so we decided to plan a day trip up to Clare to visit with Dad and Cindy this afternoon.  Let the kids sled down the hill along the side of the house, have some Buccelli's (the World's Greatest Pizza, if you weren't otherwise aware), and get some visiting time in with some grandparents.

Behold - a shit-load of pictures and video from our in-and-out excursion to Clare. . .

In a genius move on our part, we left the house without grabbing any winter clothing to speak of - Abby had left Alayna's snow pants (which she had borrowed without telling anyone) in her classroom, so neither kid had appropriate clothing for sledding.  Kris stressed over this for the entirety of our drive from Midland, but when we got there Cindy was able to scrounge up enough of Jill's old winter clothing that the girls were fine.  Cindy even found this old-ass Bugaboo hat that I owned back in middle school, which, as you can clearly tell by the teal/purple color scheme, was straight out of the mid-90s. 

I was able to borrow a pair of dad's rubber shoes so I didn't have to mess up my leather boots, but I still got snow all over my socks.

I ate shit repeatedly on this hill. . .

That's one hell of an outfit.

This thing was pretty fun, though no one was any good on it.

This pond was frozen solid, so the kids repeatedly just sled right out onto it.  I was apprehensive about this at first, but hell - we used to do the exact same thing every winter growing up.

The Cannonball, the prissier of the two girls, finally gets out onto the hill.

Dad was brave enough to do this hill, despite just recovering from dislocating his shoulder in 1991.

(That's not how you do it.)

Nana and Abby take a team run down the hill. . . 

There's definitely some drag, here.

Man down.

Sledding crew

See those tracks going across the pond?  Some dickhead rode his snowmobile across the pond and up my folks' backyard.  Who the hell does that?

Warming up by the fire in the Library (or whatever they call this room), battling out a few founds of Guess Who?

Pizza time.  Went with the usual Garden Delight and Pepperoni options, along with their bad-ass cheesy bread.

Hung out in the basement for a little bit before we bid our farewells and headed back to Midland.  Not too bad for a quick trip.

- Brian