Sledging

Despite the snow that has been a constant feature of the last few weeks, we hadn't been out with the sledges, so I was happy to take up Lachlan's suggestion and go out with the boys. Vikki was out running, so Lachlan, Calum and I set off for Mineralwell with Magnus in tow (literally, he sat in the sledge and was happy to be pulled along). When we got there it was icy, so fast and bumpy and good fun. The hard ground had taken its toll on others; a few shattered sledges were lying around.
Magnus and I took one sledge and kept to the lower bit for a few runs - I think he enjoyed his first time.

Meanwhile, the elder two had a couple of runs down the big hill. You can see them near the top in this picture, just a few seconds before they hit a big jump that someone else had built and took a fairly spectacular tumble. I wish I'd managed to capture that particular moment on film as it looked fairly impressive. Calum hurt his arm a bit, but nothing too serious and was about to get going again when Magnus got upset, possibly because he was getting cold.

Time to go home for Hot Chocolate followed by a lunch of Heinz Tomato Soup and a bit of a session on the Wii. Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours.

"A grand way to spend a Sunday afternoon"

Just the other week, we were staying at the Crieff Hydro for the in-laws 40th wedding celebrations and had decided to combine our trip with a bit of hill running and Munro bagging, so were going to head up Ben Chonzie (or Ben-y-Hone or whatever you want to call it). Unfortunately, the whole weekend was pretty much a white-out down at the bottom, so venturing up the hill would have been foolhardy, if not actually impossible - we couldn't even get the car out of the car park for much of the weekend. Instead we just had to do a lot of eating, drinking, playing games, and having fun with my in-laws. A very fine way to spend a snowy weekend.

We did run a couple of miles into town and around the estate, and on Sunday afternoon, Vikki and I ventured out into the snow for a quick run up The Knock. It was only a couple of miles but a nice wee gradient, a wander through the woods across the top, and then a speedy descent in the snow which felt great. We passed a woman out walking her dogs who remarked "A grand way to spend a Sunday afternoon". Couldn't agree more, and it was a nice way to build up an appetite for our meal that evening which was lovely, and during which many gifts were exchanged - the girls got lovely new rings, and the boys each got a quaich which were put to good use.

We took a few pictures:

Mum and Dad's Ruby Anniversary

Snow Joke

As forecast, it snowed yesterday. Sadly for Vikki, this meant she couldn't go running this morning without risking injury, but happily for the boys, it meant sledging. So we went to the park (unbelievably Lachlan actually asked if we had to walk even though it's only about 1/2 a mile) for a couple of hours and had a great time despite getting a bit cold, a bit muddy, and very wet (in Calum's case especially). Heaps of other people were at the park, including our neighbour Craig who ended up having a snowball fight with Calum.

 

 

 

Dreaming of a White Easter?

It's Easter, when the Lord Jesus gave his life to teach the world about eating chocolate. Lachlan and Calum each got about a ton of chocolate and Vikki has been trying to make sure Magnus gets a share as well.

 

The snow continued today, snow at Easter just seems wrong; Easter is supposed to be about bunnies, and daffodils, and spring and all that stuff. Of course, it doesn't help that Easter is very early this year - according to Vikki, Calum's birthday is the earliest Easter can possibly be, so it's only one day later than that this year.

 

One good thing about the weather was that we were able to sit around in the afternoon and build some of the Lego that Calum got for his birthday - in this case the Krusty Krab from Spongebob Squarepants. An intruder managed to sneak into the photo. Can you spot him? And no, I don't mean Plankton.