Nose Dive

It's remarkable how a simple thing can make you so happy. Many thanks to Zack for building such a bodacious hill and to the Evans' for letting us borrow it for a little while. Considering Emma's dad works all night and the works again most of the day, Emma doesn't get so much of a chance to do fun things when the rest of the world is doing them. When you get your very own sled for Christmas, not sledding with friends (or potential friends) is a really tough thing to do. Dad had been sizing up some local parks, trying to find a place that his bad back could tackle with his energetic 5 year old with out much success. When our cousin, Dan, told me about Zack's sledding hill I was psyched. The ideal hill seemed to have appeared. Attempts to visit Zack and Carrie's however were futile (dad had trouble at the pizza store for a couple weeks) so Emma and her poor sled waited patiently.

At last, almost a month after the sledding hill was christened, we were finally able to take advantage of the Evans' offer to try out the facility. Emma could not have been more happy. Taking nose dives off the now exposed edges seemed to thrill as much as a run down the center - which only happened once - and culminated in Emma hitting the embankment at the bottom with top speed - launching herself over the lip and landing gracefully, skids level. Emma enjoyed trying "the other hill" (also known as the gentle slope of Carrie's front lawn) with near equal pleasure.

When your little girl wants something so wholesome so badly, and you can't deliver, it breaks your heart. Finally making good on a promise to the greatest little girl in the world, that's about enough to make me get all misty. Thanks for giving me the chance to make a 5 year old happy Zack - I owe you one.