Soldier Hollow

We've been to a few work parties in our married years. A couple family barbeques, a couple adult Christmas parties... but Imagine Learning has BY FAR the best party ever! They rent out Soldier Hollow, a sledding hill complete with lift, for two hours of play time. SO FUN!

We got all suited up and headed to the hill. We soon found out that kids could not sit on laps, which started to make us nervous. We didn't know if Matthew would sit on the tube all the way up the lift by himself, or if Amy would be willing to try, but we gave it a go anyway.

Amy on the lift

Mike & Matthew on the lift

Matthew did try to wiggle out, but we made it to the top. I read part of the rules before going down, which said "don't drag your feet". So I didn't. And believe me, it goes pretty fast (the employees said they clocked themselves at 65 mph the night before). But I was brave and refused to put my feet down. Apparently the guys at the top are supposed to tell the sledders that when you get to the lighted cones you're supposed to start to slow yourself down. Oops. When the guy at the bottom started waving at me, I dropped my feet and we only went through one of the netted gates. In my defense, some people made it through 3 layers of the fence.

Now Amy is the biggest chicken when it comes to trying new things, and I was afraid, what with the whole "going through the net" thing that she wouldn't like it, but she had the biggest smile on her face and said "Can we go again?!" When I turned to find Mike and Matthew, apparently Matthew had tried to wiggle off the whole way down and did not have an ounce of fun. So I sent Amy with Mike and Matthew and I settled in with some hot chocolate. That made him much happier.

After a few more runs (the line was getting long for the lift, so we didn't get to go more than a couple more times), we headed in for some dinner. It was quite good - soups and chili and hot dogs and salad. Very family friendly, which I appreciated. Matthew was much happier when there was food around!

After warming up, we found out that both of the lifts were supposed to be open to us, but one was broken, so they agreed to give us another hour of sledding. Amy was dying to get a few more runs in. We went back outside, and either everyone didn't get the memo or they took kids home, but we were one of maybe a dozen people out on the hill. After 8-10 more runs (every time we got to the bottom, Amy immediately said "Can we go again?!"), we were cold and tired and ready to come home. But not without Amy's plea to come back again another time! Definitely the best work party ever!