#14 - Ice Blocking

This is an activity to which I was exposed a few years back when our daughters' youth group did this as a summer activity. I had never heard of it before.  It pretty much amounts to summer sled riding.  You simply take a block of ice, top it with a towel or other cloth, set your butt on it and slide down a hill.  The girls reported that it was lots of fun and since then I've always intended to try it "some day."

What better (and cheap!) way to spend a hot summer afternoon (besides, I was procrastinating painting my daughter's bedroom--I hate painting). We bought 3 blocks of ice and Craig, our boys, their friend and I headed down to the park to give it a try (the girls are both out of town).

While I have seen people do this at the park, I was still a bit skeptical.  If any of you Coloradoans have tried to sled at the Sand Dunes, you'll understand my mindset. We've heard so many times how awesome it is to sled down the dunes, but despite our best efforts with plastic sleds, aluminum sleds and even pieces of cardboard, we haven't been able to budge an inch.  So, I thought my experience with ice blocking would mirror my experience with sledding on the dunes.

I was wrong!  The ice slides down a grassy hill incredibly easily.  The challenge is balancing an adult sized body on an itsy bitsy 10 lb. block of ice. It becomes quite an abdominal workout.  We tried both sitting on our butts and laying on our stomachs. Both presented their own balancing challenges, but both were fun.  And hiking back up that big hill (hauling 10 extra pounds) made it good exercise, as well.

So, if you are bored on a hot summmer day, I'd suggest you plop down $2 for a chunck of ice, find a hill and enjoy some ice blocking with your kids.