Sled rides for toddlers!

That's what I did last weekend, gave rides to the mini-humans. Oh yeah, and their parents!


Hunter and Matt. Look at George freaking out in behind there!!  She is wondering what is up with that short person. He IS suspicious looking. That or she's jealous and wants a hat with HER name on it!

Hunter puts on a brave face and turns to face the yapping monsters - look at them scatter! ha! His canine-control powers put the dog whisperer to shame.

Kara and Hunter wait... for me to get my crap together pretty much. I'm never organized for stuff like this. Dog lines?! Oh yeah, I need some of those! Sled hook? Where did that go...?

We're ready to roll! I show Matt the most important job - standing on the brake to hold the maniacs during hook up. 

Notice I am using "The Beast" of a sled? First time I've used that thing this year and I forgot how BOMBPROOF (that's just for you Dave) is!! It's a behemoth, heavy sled and the dogs actually had to work so that was good. Unlike my mini sled it didn't feel like it was going to fall apart with 6 dogs.

Hunter looks pretty darned relaxed with all the mayhem going on in front of him!


We're almost ready to go, I think I was having some good tangles at this point and waiting (er, hoping!) things would sort themselves out.

And... they didn't. Pooh Bear snapped her tugline and Ivy got into some kind of tangle and was starting to freak out when we got to the bottom of the hill.  She was just about coming out of her harness, which isn't a huge deal, but she needed some assistance.  So I had to get Matt to come and hop on the brake while I sorted out the Ivy confusion and re-tied PB's tugline. I guess she's just too strong... or my tuglines are way old.... Geez!

Then we were off!!

And... we're back. Quick, but fun.

Hunter looks utterly impressed!!! Or depressed it's over? He did squeal and giggle on the downhills - when we got going a bit faster.   I'm sure he'll be getting his very own dog team when they get back to Faro. He'll need a hobby once the new baby is here!  :)

And I have to say, you got to love a kid who gets barreled into by a crazy dog (ahem, Pooh Bear! watch where you're going!!!!) and ends up on his butt, but manages just to laugh at it.

And then it was almost-3-yr old Mya and little sister Sadie's turn on the sled. I'm still awaiting pictures from that but here they are post-run perfecting the art of keeping valuable rice cakes away from dogs:

It's brilliant!  I wish I'd thought of that years ago!!

You simply just hold the food up wayyyy over your head. See Pooh Bear and Ripper's attempts for food are easily thwarted!

Yet the dogs never give up... they are persistent if nothing else!

These two were great in the sled too.  Mya had been obsessed with sleds and dogs since the Yukon Quest start.   She watched the start and counted the dogs on each team as they went by her (although according to her, some teams only had five dogs...perhaps a slight miscalculation!).  When we finished our ride, she wouldn't get out of the sled and said "I want to go again!" She had to be bribed out with dog pets and rice cakes.  And the promise of climbing the stairs to the loft. I swear - all of you parents out there should just get a set of stairs like mine, toddlers seem to be obsessed with them! Maybe it's the danger factor - no railings, open stairs, loft with no railing, etc... either way it can be hours of entertainment.