This mid-January weekend, we finally had a decent snowfall. After a December with more rain than we knew what to do with, we welcomed the colder weather and all the fun it brought with it. We took Emma to the park to sled on the same orange toboggan Todd had used growing up. It was her first trip to a "real" sledding hill after just using the little slope in our yard the past couple years. In spite of the wind-blown conditions that left the grass exposed in some places, we traveled fast and far on the slippery hill! Emma laughed the whole way down, every ride. After about 8 runs, Emma plopped down in the snow halfway up the hill and said, "I think I'm out of gas!"
The following day, we went to a town near Mom and Dad's for a Winter Festival, where an ice-carving artist created and displayed his ice sculptures. We met Grandma and Papa, Uncle Jason and Aunt Kristen there. Emma was mesmerized by it all, taking in every sculpture and commenting on the details. We even stood and watched from start to finish as the artist turned an ordinary block of ice into a bird of paradise. The highlight of Emma's day, though, was when the sculptor took time out to carve names into the leftover pieces of ice. Not only did he write Emma's name for her, but he flipped it over and, after glancing at Emma's winter coat, wrote "Dora" on the back!
