Snow, Snow, Snow!

Our planned snow day happened to be on Megan’s birthday this year.  Luckily, she was totally cool with turning her birthday into our annual snow run.  We let her bring two of her besties, which made it a great day for all.  They boys did their thing and Megan got to build a snowman and do snow angels with the girls.

A week before the scheduled trip, I thought it wasn’t going to happen.  Flag hadn’t gotten snow in weeks.  But, we got lucky and the two days before we went, they got over a foot of new snow!  Yay!

   

I look forward to going to the snow almost as much as I anticipate Disneyland vacations.  I love it that much.  So, be prepared for picture overload… we took hundreds… so narrowing it down was really tough!

   

   

   

We have learned the hard way that you have to be prepared with the right clothing and shoes.  And you can never bring enough pairs of gloves.  NEVER!  It was so great this year to have Brayden be so self sufficient.  He didn’t need much help at all.  And he didn’t stop all day.  He didn’t even fall asleep in the car driving home! 

   

   

   

When you look at these trees, how can you NOT be in LOVE?  I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that the snow lasts long enough for us to make one more run during spring break.  I would be in heaven! 

President's Day Adventure

Last Monday, for Presidents Day, we headed to the mountains. There is a place just north of downtown Flagstaff that we love to visit, called Wing Mountain. For $10 a car, you get organized parking, groomed sledding hills, porta potties, and a concession stand. It's a great set-up and worth the 3 hour drive.Taylor and Ian got quite good at "snowboarding" down the hills standing up in the sleds. This kid has no fear. Literally. He had so much fun. It was so cute to watch how happy he was playing in the snow. Perhaps the Olympic Skeleton Race will be in his future? Look at that form!

When we took our lunch break, we went off to a flat, forested area on the other side of the parking lot and had the whole area to ourselves. The kids got into a giant snow war with Eric and my Dad. And Megan and Brayden worked on making a snow family.

Brayden attacking my mom with snow balls.

This is a snowman we found. He looked like a one legged bum smoking a cigar. We gave him a new leg and a face lift... much better!I LOVE this picture of my dad. My mom had just nailed him in the face with a snowball. He threw so many snowballs at the boys that he had some "pitcher's elbow" like pains later on.And the secret to staying dry? Having "I'm holding the Camera!!!" immunity.

It ended up being a great day despite the few setbacks... like me losing my car keys while we were loading the car. I had them when I went out to start loading, and lost them sometime after that. While the car sat on the driveway and we looked for my keys, the battery ran down and died. So after we gave up the key hunt, we couldn't even start it because it was dead. Thank goodness for Uncle Craig's battery charger Christmas gift all those many moons ago. When we got there, we lost track of Megan and Ian for a while, but they were eventually found. And when we left, we had to be jumped again because of the stupid battery. I am going to have to get a new one very soon. But, minor annoyances aside, it was a great day. Everyone stayed warm and dry. No one had a meltdown and no major injuries. I'm seriously thinking about making a second run with the kids during spring break... that's how much fun we had!

King of the Hill

All geared up and ready to go... our Favorite sledding spot... Wing Mountain, AZ

We went to Flagstaff to play in the snow yesterday... and Ian was almost as happy as he is on Christmas!

He couldn't get enough...

when everyone else was tired...

and wet...

and cold ...

and hungry...

he just kept going and going and going...

kinda like the energizer bunny!

It was really hard for me to get any decent pictures at all... it was crazy crowded up there yesterday! Everytime I had a good shot lined up, someone would walk right in front of it, or some wayward sledder would nearly take me out because they don't know that it's wise to stop your sled with your feet before you run into the spectators...

Seriously, why does all common sense fly out the window when you are in the snow? We saw some pretty darn close calls, including a kid about 10 years old get pummelled by a intertube holding 3 grown adults... yeah, it wasn't pretty! Thankfully, he was able to walk away unharmed, but he was probably mentally scarred for life!

All in all it was a good day, but I'm hoping we can make one more run later in the season when it's not so darn crowded... last year we went up in late February and it was awesome. We are thinking that Ian might have bobsledding in his future....