You would think that since I instinctively knew to throw myself onto my back while holding Jude tightly to my chest as we we thrown from our friend’s red snow saucer, I might also have instinctively known that a sledding adventure might not have been the best activity for me to take part in (in light of recent back issues–my apologies to Jenny, my PT!).

This afternoon, our neighbor friend, Sarah, offered to drive Jude and me to Mt. Trashmore* in Skokie to go sledding. Mt. Trashmore is made up of three distinct hills: small, medium, and large. Riding the small hill was a blast. There are moguls down the middle of the hill, and try as we might to stay to the sides and avoid them, their pull was too great, and we ended up hitting every one each time we made a run down the hill.

After just a few trips down the smallest of the three hills, Sarah and I decided to take a look at the medium-sized hill. It was bigger, and the moguls numbered more than on the small hill, but it didn’t seem to be too scary, so I decided to secure Jude in my lap and have a go at it.

We FLEW down that hit. We hit (nearly) every mogul. The second to last one was BIG, and as soon as we hit it, we both went flying. Don’t get me wrong, we had fun. Jude laughed the entire time and his little body didn’t touch the snow. Me, on the other hand? Well, I landed square on my back (with Jude on my front and slid on the icy snow for a good long while. I felt fine right after the incident, but now, a few hours removed…well, I’m sore, to say the least.

After we picked ourselves up an brushed ourselves off, we played for a while at the neighboring park. Shortly after that, some kids showed up and started sledding, and suddenly, Jude was interested in the hills again. By the end of the day, Jude had gotten into a pattern of going down with either Sarah or me, then taking a run by himself, and then riding down with the other adult (down the littlest hill, FYI). He was visibly exhausted by the time we got to the car, and he couldn’t help himself from telling me (over and over) that he liked! the tea Sarah had packed for us to enjoy.

*Apparently, the hill we went sledding on is a old, filled-in landfill that was covered over specifically to make a sledding hill. Or something like that.