Ok, I still promise on bringing you all up to date on all the baby and Christmas goings-ons that we missed during the IHJ outage, but we had too good a time today and had to share before it fell out of my head.  It’s been pretty cold around here lately (yes, that happens in Albuquerque), but at most we get intermittent slushing around our neighborhood so I thought it was time to scale the closest mountain in search of some quality white stuff.  After having each of the kids put on socks, then footie pajamas, then a long-sleeve shirt and pants, then shoes, then a jacket, gloves and hat, we were ready to start up the East side of the Sandia Mountains (right after we overshot the turnoff by about 15 miles the first time).  Roads were a little more icy than we had guessed, so we didn’t go all the way up and instead took the first rest area turnoff we found which was just fine with the kids.  After some serious snow digging, snow throwing, and snow climbing/scooting Jonah and Calvin spent the rest of the time sledding.  The fact that we didn’t actually bring sleds didn’t seem to slow them down;  they just used a combination of a discarded three ring binder, a complete stranger’s inner tube, and their pants.  After everyone was sufficiently frozen, we slowly slid the car back down the mountain for some much earned (and much reminded about on the ride there)  hot chocolates.  Next time:  Actual sleds (w/ fewer faceplants), chains for the car, and an arrival time that doesn’t compete with the sunset!