Jumping in a Winter Wonderland

Our kids love the trampoline. LOVE it. It's pretty much all they do during the summer. They have majorly missed it since winter started. They found out the hard way that jumping in the winter is not the same as summer. Right after our first snow they begged to play outside. The first thing they did was go to the snow covered trampoline and immediately take their shoes off to jump (since, of course, the same trampoline rules apply in both summer and winter, right?). After only a few minutes outside, both kids were crying and screaming and wondering why their beloved trampoline was no fun anymore.
Fast forward 6 weeks. We have had a very mild winter this year. Cold? Absolutely! Snow-covered? You betcha! But slightly, slightly warmer than normal. A few weeks ago while Bria was at school, Max spent the better part of an hour shoveling snow off the trampoline. I didn't tell him to or anything. He just wanted to play outside and that's what he decided to do. Well, his efforts (combined with a few warm days, but of course mostly his efforts) have paid off. We have a snow free trampoline!!! Add that to a couple of hard-knock educated children and I think we've accomplished some successful wintertime jumping! And they had a BLAST!