Sledding...and melting Dad's heart

Well, we finally had a beautiful Winter day on Saturday (before I got what might have been the flu - see previous post). I (Tim) took Ellie out to go sledding down the hill by the Hillcrest football field. As we started walking there, Ellie looked up at the sky and saw the moon even though it was the middle of the day. I'm not sure if she was confused or just excited that she found the moon, but every few feet we would stop and look for it. It was taking a while to get to the football field, so I thought I'd cut through to the Seminary, hoping we'd find a little slope, but we didn't find anything that would work.

We continued to walk across the parking lot and I started to feel bad for her, wishing we had gone straight to the football field. I would turn around and see her in her snowsuit, hat, mittens and boots, trying to keep up with me. I'd ask her how she was doing. "Good," she'd reply in a quiet voice distracted by her surroundings. I'd ask her if she was cold. "Yeah," she'd answer looking up at me with her pink cheeks and red nose, but with a smile on her face. Then she'd ask where the moon was, turning around and looking up at the sky.

We walked a little bit more and I started to worry that she was getting tired and not having any fun. I promised her that we were almost there, pointing out our destination. I pulled her on the sled a little bit more and then without noticing, I pulled her through a patch of mud. She got her mittens dirty and then rubbed it on her face. I asked myself why I didn't just go straight to the football field. Why did I cut through to the Seminary, when I wasn't sure there was even a hill to sled down? She's gotta be getting bored just walking around a parking lot and I'm sure she's cold.

I helped her up and brushed the mud off of her face and mittens. I apologized to her, but all she wanted to do was find the moon, again. As we started to walk again, I asked her how she was doing and if she was cold.

She looked me right in the eyes and with a big smile she answered me, "Ellie happy."

At that moment I realized that she didn't care that we weren't sledding down a hill. She didn't mind the walk. She wasn't concerned about the little bit of mud on her mittens. She was just satisfied hanging out with Dad and looking for the moon that happened to show up in the middle of the day. I didn't need to entertain her, She just wanted to spend time with me.

We did finally reach the hill and went down a couple times together and the video below is Ellie going down the hill by herself for the first time. Then she saw some snowmen off in the distance and we had to check those out. I lost my winter boots during our move, so I was in my tennis shoes. My feet were getting pretty cold, but I was having too much fun with her to care. I was happy too.