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Spruce Grove, Alberta
Bonding time
Sledding helps strengthen the bond in this Spruce Grove family
by TANYA LAING MOORE
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HAPPY MEMORIES: The Whalings enjoy sledding together in the Spruce Grove area and elsewhere in B.C.
—Photo courtesy LeAnn Whaling
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LeAnn Whaling and her family—husband Tom, eight-year-old daughter Vanessa and five-year-old son Dawson—have found that the family that sleds together stays together.
“My husband’s on the road a lot,” said LeAnn, “and I run a computer consulting and graphics business. We’re very busy. Snowmobiling . . . has united us and enabled us to get out and make our trail system and snowmobile together as a family. Our kids absolutely love it.”
LeAnn, who is very active in the Alberta Snowmobiling Association, believes that her children’s involvement in the pastime is giving them a greater appreciation for the area in which they live as well as an understanding of trail maintenance.
“Vanessa and Dawson understand that you must respect the land around you,” said LeAnn. “There have to be proper places to ride. It’s a family activity that’s together and it’s instilling them with values.”
Along with teaching the importance of trail maintenance and respect for nature, LeAnn feels that sledding is teaching their children proper safety and maintenance—in short, responsibility—and those lessons will carry through other activities as well.
LeAnn has noticed that snowmobiling is increasingly become a family activity, whereas in the past, it was mainly a hobby the men enjoyed.
“We are all so busy these days that it’s hard to bring the family back together,” said LeAnn. “But now, you should see the amount of families that are coming out to the trails to ride. It’s so nice to see that the wives are coming out, the kids are coming out. There are lots of activities to do in the winter, but this is one people can do together.”
Besides providing time for her immediate family to spend time together, sledding is a pastime that her extended family has become very involved in.
“My brother and his wife have ridden with us the whole time,” said LeAnn. “We have extended family that rides quite a few of them and that’s the thing—we say, ‘We’re going here; we’re going there,’ and all of a sudden everyone else shows up that we haven’t seen in how long. So during the day we get to get out and play together and at the night time you get to be together and socialize. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to do it, because no matter how you plan to do it, it doesn’t work.”
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