dance of the sugarplum fairies

JP Mathis has been telling everyone that she's been waiting for the pond behind their house to get totally frozen so that she can go walk on it. Well, the day has come. JP told us that she and Tyler walked on it last night, so I told Jaclyn we should try it in the morning. After all, it's coldest at night and the ice should be thickest then. As you can see, Jaclyn was totally convinced.

After gearing up, we set out for the pond. It was 20 degrees (Fahrenheit, for Matt) out when I checked the weather at 8:00a. The pond was perfect.













Crocs aren't the best shoes for ice skating. They hardly slid at all. Jaclyn and I were both wearing them, so we had the same problem. As you can see, the ice held me just fine.













We handed off the camera so Jaclyn could give it a try. The ice did crack a little and made really cool noises. Tyler broke through last night, but had to try pretty hard before he did.

Fortunately, I know that spreading out your weight is the best way not to fall through. Here, I was actually practicing my swimming strokes. I guess it's too cold for polar bear swimming. It would have been fun to have something to knock around on the ice, like maybe a puck, but the cracking was a little unnerving!

I decided it just wasn't slippery enough with the shoes, so I took them off. My SmartWool socks kept my feet warm and made me slide better.

If you click on the pictures of us standing up, you can probably see the small cracks that spread across the ice. The pond is probably only waist-deep. It only holds run-off water and has no outlet.

Jaclyn thought I was crazy to take the camera out on the ice. I wish we had brought some dogs along. I think it would have been hilarious to watch them try to stand on the ice.

I don't know if I'll get to walk on a frozen pond in Tennessee anytime in the near future. The high today is 34 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be 44. I guess our cold snap has gone away. Oh, well . . . it was fun while it lasted . . . and we have pictures to prove it!