The dangers of Toboganing

Today was beautiful outside, a balmy -3 . So the family decided to head up to the hills and do some sledding!!!!! My husband wants to bring our dog (see other blogs for stories on "the dog") so We all pack into my mom bus(mini van).
Now normally there is a really cool area to sled at the base of the hills. There's lots of hills to choose from,people have big bon fires, it's great. We all drive by this area looking out our window with sad faces wishing we could go there. sigh. The we all glare at the dog,and mutter nasty things about him under our breathe.
You see my dog Montana or Idiot as I like to call him, does not like other people, he will chase them, bark and snarl at them, it's not a pretty sight! Did I forget to mention that the dog has been howling and whinning the hole way up. So on we drive, up into the isolated hills looking for some spot to go. Then up ahead we see a spot.



All was going well and everyone was having fun................



After a few runs I noticed my husband looking around suspiciosly.
Me- What?
Hubby-Did you hear that?
Me- Hear what? Snowmobiles?
Hubby- No, sounded like gunshots?

Right, thats what you want to hear when you are on the side of a mountain 200ft away from your vehicle. So we listen. Every few minutes we would here a sound, almost like what it would sound like if something was whizzing by really fast then lots of cracking noises. At this point I am getting a little sketched. I have seen to many movies, so I'm thinking some redneck hillbillies are going to appear over the hill and start chasing us off their land. Hubby trys to reassure me that I'm over reaccting, as he still looks around uneasily. So we do a few more runs, more whizzing and cracking noises, kids are starting to wonder. My daughter and I decide to go down the hill together, Yay! fun.......
All was well until we reached the bottom of the hill.


Here is a shot moments before our wipeout. Now the next picture was taken just a moment after this one................
Now, you would think I got snow in my eyes right? WRONG!! notice the picture above how my dogs face is right behind me and in this shot it's his back end? Well the dumbass whipped his tail into my eyes and momentarily blinded me. Of course my hubby had no idea yet at that point(or so he says) so he kept on taking pictures. So there I am rolling around in the snow, rubbing my burning eyes and cursing the dog more. All this time the freaky gunshot type noises are still going off, only now they are louder.
So we finally decide that maybe it's time to pack it in. So we head back to the van just as a truck load of hillbillie Albertans (that's people from the province Alberta) pull up beside our van. The roll down their window and ask us if we are coming or going. We tell them we are leaving, they tell us that they are shooting clay pigiens. We smile politely as we try to shove our kids in the van, away from the gun weilding clay pigion shooting hillbillies.......at least we figured out what the noise was.