A Day in the Snow!!!

Well, us Californians have to drive to get to the snow!! And it is considered fun to go "play" in the snow. So we spent many hours and many dollars gearing up for this fun day to play. We made sure everyone was equipped with snow boots, snow pants, snow gloves, snow jackets, thermals, hats, scarves, sleds, tubes, food, water & blankets and off we went! Part way up tire chains were required, that was Craig's first experience with chains. How funny he grew up in Eastern Idaho. We fumbled around a little but between the two of us got it figured out and made it all the way with only one minor mishap. Once there we started layering on our winter gear and an hour later we were ready to hit the slopes. I wasn't sure how Tyler was going to do so we got our little area set up with food, water and chairs and we each grabbed a tube or sled and headed up the hill. Sari headed down having a blast but Ashlie wasn't so sure. Her first trip down she crash landed halfway and so I wasn't sure she would be coming back up the hill. Craig put Tyler on his sled and they headed down. I watched eagerly for Tyler's reaction only to see him land at the bottom and get up to walk back up the hill. He was hooked!!! Ashlie decided to give it one more try before calling it quits. This time as she was getting on her tube she slipped and landed in her tube going down the hill. She didn't have much time to panic before she landed safely at the bottom and determined that it wasn't so bad after all!!! From there on we couldn't stop any of the kids from wanting more. So they spent the next couple of hours marching up the hill and sliding down. Fortunately for us, Tyler wanted to do most of his own walking through the snow, it took a while to get where we were going but that was half of the fun for Tyler. Part way through we walked back out to the parking area and met up with our ward from church for chili dogs and hot chocolate. Then back in we went and did another couple of hours of sledding. I made the last run of the day and decided to try the round disk sled we had brought. By this point in the day the course we were going down was pretty worn and slick so you were able to get quite a bit of speed. At the bottom there was a little hill that if you hit with the right speed and angle you could actually catch some air. So up I went to try it one more time. I certainly had some speed and hit the hill at the bottom just right and caught some air. As I was flying over I realized I was headed straight for where Tyler and Ashlie were playing in the snow so when I hit the ground I just started rolling so I wouldn't crash into them. If you notice in the last picture there really isn't a focus point. That's because it is Tyler & Ash playing and me rolling into them. All in all we had a great time playing. Craig and I came home a little red, we remembered the sun screen for the kids, just forgot ourselves. It was a lot of fun and we plan on going back soon since the kids all enjoyed it so much.