We're home! We slept in our own cuddly little beds last night. We had the best cabin Christmas. Click on any photo below to go to the photo stream and see many, many more.
Tuesday 23 December: We drove through a couple of snow storms on the way up, but even so it wasn't bad driving. There was snow on the roads, but our 4WD totally handled it. Sometimes we had to drive slowly, sometimes we could almost travel 65MPH, and we made it from Salt Lake City (where most of my family lives) to the cabin in one long day. We unloaded the car and trailer and then crash-landed into beds, exhausted.
Wednesday 24 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow. We did our minimal Christmas decorating—put up the small tree, a few ornaments, and the one string of lights, put the presents under the tree. And then the kids went out into the wonderland of snow, which they did every day. We decorated a gingerbread house, which we ate that evening (Christmas Eve!) while we watched a Christmas movie.
So many presents...
...we even had to stuff them around the back of the tree :)
(this one is after all the kids were in bed and all the presents were out)
Thursday 25 December: Woke up to a few inches of new snow, and it snowed all day. Christmas morning was wonderful, everyone was thrilled with their presents, which is always a relief for the parents. They played happily for an hour or two, and then bundled up and went out into the snow again.
Friday 26 December: More new snow that continued all day, more playing with toys, more enjoying the cabin.
Saturday 27 December: We'd gotten at least six more inches of snow, so we all went out for a last romp. Then it was indoors to pack, clean up, and make Christmas cookies. :)
Sunday 28 December: The first morning we didn't wake to a layer of new snow, which was great since we'd plowed out the evening before in preparation for getting the car and trailer back out of the driveway. We left early and started the journey home. Near the cabin it was snowing lightly, but within an hour and a half as we approached Coeur D'Alene, where Blaine's grandparents live, it was slushy rainy snow. The further south we went, the warmer it got and the rainier it was. If someone were telling me this as a story, I'd think, that makes for easier traveling. But it didn't. It was slushy and way more slippery than just the snow was, and we went slower. By afternoon it was clear we wouldn't make it home. So we decided to stay in a motel. This is a pretty rare thing for the kiddles, and they were excited. We got a "suite" (which is two queens and a pull-out bed in the sofa *eyeroll*) and watched a DVD before sleeping hard. This was the one and only time during the trip we had internet access, and Emma was so excited to check her final grades for the semester. She got all A+ again, all seven classes and both extra-curriculars. SO PROUD OF HER.
Monday 29 December: Breakfast, driving, picking up everything from Salt Lake we'd accidentally left on our way through, visiting family, and then, home. We had to shovel out our walks and driveway before we could even pull in and unload. It was a lot of happy, weary Ls that finally flopped into bed yesterday evening. :)
So glad we went, despite all the work it was to pack everything up there and back, and the long, long drives.
6 comments:
Holy Cow!! My packing seems really easy compared to yours. You had to take all that snow gear (ugg). It looks like you had soooo much fun!
Sooo cool. I would do that too if I had the chance. It would be nice to remove myself from "life" and just live for the moments of Christmas-with the family and the snow. Not distractions.
Oh and your cat should of maintained her weight. All was well.
1. Awesome fun! I want you guys to adopt me. I promise I am already toilet trained.
2. New phobia: I would have been absolutely terrified the entire time that one of my children would fall into the cold lake and drown. Absolutely. Terrified. I'm scared just looking at these photos.
Man do I wish I could be around snow... As I mentioned, it was 75 degrees on our Christmas morning. It would have been so much fun to wake up to snow. It was very beautiful!!!
Holy cow! I'd heard about it, but now looking at the pictures makes me way excited to go there with you guys in summer. However, it also looks awesome to go there in winter. Maybe in a year or two we could wrangle a Christmas invite....
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