The Scenery of Colorado For a family of Kansans, the snow-covered mountains and trees made a spectacular visual treat.

Braving the Designated Sledding Hill Silver Sage Lodge at the YMCA of the Rockies had the added benefit of being immediately adjacent to the designated sledding hill, and the children lost no time in hurtling down the hill.  Dad went to go rent sleds for them, but by the time he returned a few minutes later, he found that they were already sliding down on lunch trays which had been surreptitiously appropriated from the cafeteria by other less well-equipped sledders.

Icicles collected from the eaves of the lodges made for a convenient, fat-free, and most importantly, Dad-approved snack!

Patrick could not be satisfied coming down the hill the standard way, and was continually looking for new and exciting stunts, earning him the description of "crazy" by bystanders, which suited Patrick just fine, though most of us suspect that "crazy" was a euphemism for "stupid"! Patrick could be found sailing down the slope head first on his belly, or riding his sled like a snowboard.

"Look, Dad!  I'm still upright!"

The supreme goal of the activity was to achieve "lift", that is, to go sailing through the air after hitting the snow ramp at the bottom of the hill.  However, such exhilaration did not come without a price, and there were many complaints of sore shoulders and tailbones at the end of the day!

Lewis was predictably the more sensible of the two boys, and for the most part, rode his sled like a reasonable person.  Still and all though, sleds are not blessed with the steering mechanism that one might hope for, and Lewis took his share of spills at the bottom of the hill!

Here, Lewis made sure that tree knew who was boss.  There was another tree at the bottom of the hill, which had no illusions whatsoever that it would make it to see spring.

Poor little Catherine was not of sufficient mass to achieve much speed on the hills, so she really only got to sled if her Dad or one of her brothers took her down the hill.  But Catherine was not one to sit idle, and set about building a Junior Frosty the Snowman.

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