A Letter For Sledding

One of the single funnest activities... PERIOD

Growing up in Minnesota where it’s cold for about 5 months (and dreadfully cold for about 6 weeks) of the year teaches you few things. The cold specific things are this:

1. When it’s cold you have to just embrace it and go out into it. You can’t be stuck in your house for 5 months, it’s unhealthy.

2. Layer Up

3. Buy a GREAT pair of boots and gloves

4. Let your car warm up before you drive

Enjoy it. Go sledding, skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, build snowmen, play king of the hill on the snow plow mounds, have snowball fights, shovel the driveway for exercise, make snow angels, play tackle football on the snowiest day.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, please put your other great snow activities in the comments.

My wife loves sledding too and has the best sledding outfits on earth.

Yesterday we met some old friends up in Park City and went sledding (a first for their youngest 2 kiddos) and today, after ur first substantial snowfall in SLC, we went sledding at Sugarhouse Park with well, pretty much everyone in the Sugarhouse area.

IT WAS AWESOME.

Sledding is one of the all time best and most fun activities. It’s fun for everyone. It’s joyful by nature. You can’t go down a snowy hill and NOT smile from ear to ear.

Even our little one, Odin (5yo), finally figured out how to do it all on his own. He loved it so much we couldn’t get him off the hill. He just kept going and going, right through nap time. He climb his brightful little butt up the hill dragging the sled, get to the top and just start declaring “Again! Again!” And then face first and half his body on the sled he’d go down again.

There is something special about sledding. It’s like riding a 2-wheel bike confidently for the first time - a feeling of pure freedom and joy and exhilaration. With sledding, every year you get 9 months to forget about that feeling and then the first big snowfall happens. The energy immediately goes to the nostalgia of that feeling, you suit up and find the sleds in the back of the garage/shed and go to the hill.

Then you get on the sled, launch yourself forward and let gravity and physics do the rest. Once you get to terminal velocity about 30% down the hill is when that feeling kicks in and the smile starts beaming.

My wife also dresses our kids in the best sledding outfits on earth

It’s these types of activities that we should prioritize in life and seek out as often as possible. Here are my requirements for an always-fun activity:

1. It’s fun

2. It’s outside / in nature

3. It’s with friends

4. It’s physical

So to sledding - I thank you. For giving me countless fun memories from my childhood growing up in Minnesota and for giving me and my family and friends so much pure joy over my life.

With love and deep appreciation,

-Andrew