Let it Snow!

For those of you who didn't know, Mesa doesn't get much snow.  Even though the rest of the country got dumped on, we only got a little bit of rain.  We decided that this year, we would go snow hunting.  Luke found a cabin in the mountains that promised 3 feet of snow.  It was a six hour drive, and the closer we got, the more I became certain that we were going to be sorely disappointed.  There was just a little dusting, even in the areas that Dad had said generally do have quite a bit.  But when we were within a mile of the place, we realized that they weren't kidding.  Yay, we found snow!  We had stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way in the hopes that they would have snowpants and snowboots and sleds we could buy.  They just don't have that stuff in our town.  Luke and I already had stuff from our snowboarding days, but the girls only had coats and gloves.  We did find boots, but they were sold out of snowpants and sleds everywhere.  I finally found a pair of size 10 pants in a sports store, along with some disk sleds.  We just had to put tons of layers on Apple. 

 The cabin was very cute.  Apple, who has absolutely no experience with snow was quickly overwhelmed on the walk from the car.  She was really excited , but kept falling over and when she stuck her hands out to catch herself, they would get very cold.  She finally just sat down and wailed until I could come get her.  She did a little better once we got her all bundled up, but it was just so funny that snow was so alien to her.  It didn't take her long to discover how delicious snow was, however.  She spent a lot of time trying to pick up snowballs so she could eat them.  As soon as we got outside, she would start chanting, "I need snow, I need snow" until she could get some in her mouth.  It was so funny.  She said it tasted like strawberry milk. 

To get Strawberry's pants to fit, first Luke tried cinching it on with his belt, but then his pants were falling down.  He went to the main lodge to find some rope, but all they had was speaker wire, so he managed to make her a little pair of suspenders with that.  It was so cute, I laughed till I cried. 

We had tons of fun sledding and tubing.  There was only one other kid staying there so we pretty much had it to ourselves.  It was a skinny little hill, but you could get going pretty fast.  The worst part was trying to get their girls back up the hill.  I remember trudging up the hill when I was little, dragging a sled behind and it was exhausting.  

We stayed for 2 nights and on the second day attempted to make a snowman.  The snow was way too powdery though and we had to settle for a snow-pile man.  As soon as it was done though, the girls attacked it and ate it.  It was pretty weird.  

However, later in the day when it warmed up and the snow started to melt a little, Luke was able to help them build an excellent snowman.  This was our whole purpose for the trip so we were pretty excited that we were finally able to do it.  (Like Luke's beard?)

There was a little wood stove and I built the fire in it all by myself.  I even chopped kindling with a hatchet.  I could have sworn I have never built a fire, except that when I was doing it, memories of building a fire in our stove came back.  But I haven't done it since I was a kid.  We did have newspaper, but it turns out that coffee filters work amazingly well.  It was an excellent fire and warmed the cabin up to 85.  Yes, I'm very proud of myself.  :)

It was a fun trip.  We should do it every year, at least until we move back to somewhere with snow.  It would be nice to use our snowboards again someday.  Luke noticed the lift tickets on his jacket were from 6 years ago.  But is snowboarding worth giving up the beach?  Ummmm, n0 (7 months to California!).