sledding with riaan

Today was Riaan's last day with us before he returns to South Africa. New England is sending him out in frigid style as the temps began dropping today after (relatively) warmer days in the mid to upper 30's.

We wanted to take him sledding as well as to Maine so we headed up to Portland this morning with all our snow gear and sleds. There's some good hills on the Eastern Prom, which overlooks Casco Bay, so it's picturesque as well. The only issue was that the wind was blowing about 25 miles an hour and the temps were dropping into the 20's. Needless to say we didn't stay out too long (45 min or so), but we adults did numerous runs on the hill and Riley got to play on the playground equipment and take a few "toddler hill" runs in his sled. He cried when we left, even though his little fingers were cold. Here's some of the shots we took...my camera got snow on it, so some of the pics have white spots...sorry!

Riaan taking a run on the hill and brandishing his ice weapons:









Riley enjoyed watching the guys go down the hill...he laughed when they fell out of the sled:









He loved the swing..but complained when I made him wait as I readied the camera:









This will be a fun place to play when the temps are above 40!









No visit to Portland is complete without a trip to the Portland Head Light:









Afterwards, we met up with my cousins at Olive Garden. Riley had a ball playing with Erica:









Riley's gonna miss his backseat buddy:









We're sorry to see Riaan leave as we've enjoyed having him here these past 10 days. We hope we'll get to see him again later this year!

Shelby