February Snow Trip 2010

This year the snow at my parents place up North has been amazing... which means tons of fun for us. The roads are private and so they don't plow them, which means the kids have a fast smooth path for sledding and snowboarding. Here is my cute mom in front of the snow blocking the driveway of the cabin. Yes, I know for some of you who live in the snow this is no big deal, but its AZ folks so we get excited!

Some of the Dad's went up early in the afternoon on Friday and took the older kids. My sisters Liz and Denise and I went to a reception on Friday night for a cousin and then drove up together with our little ones on Saturday morning.

(the moms as the kids call us)

We spent the weekend relaxing, playing in the snow, and playing games with cousins. The best part was that the kids were old enough to get up the hill and do the sledding without much help which made it much for enjoyable for everyone. The sun was shinning and there was tons of snow- what more could you ask for! Here is a large collection of all the fun that we had. Apparently we never got a whole family shot in the snow so here they are.

Ryan being the cutest dad of girls (check out their new pink jackets from Christmas! We finally get to try them out.)

Momma and her girls

Haylee snowboarding and LOVING It!

snow bunnies (Rylee and Haylee)

Addilyn snowboarding for the first time and telling me that she is ready for the big hill!

Addilyn sledding at night with the streetlight!

Elyse tolerating the sledding! She didn't really cry, but she didn't really laugh either!

Elyse and Addilyn hanging out loving the snow!

the kids made lots of these

and these too!

Dad sometimes did a little of this after carrying kiddos and gear up the hill.

Grace and Elyse sitting while we sledded (this sled didn't work cause of the powder, but made for a great bench to sit on!)

The girls played with all of these fun cousins on this tall pile of snow

I was so excited to capture Elyse's first moments playing in the snow. She was like a little angel and kept smiling at me and eating snow while I was taking her pictures (this is not the norm, she normally wants to sit on my lap and hold the camera)

and these pictures were taken just because they are cute girls!

Haylee and Elyse (Elyse got to where she would go down with people and be pretty happy. I was impressed that the snow really did not bother her and she was content to just be eating it or sitting near all the kids playing in it!) Check out her beanie... yeah for hat looms and cheap yarn!

So on the last day while sledding, we thought it would be fun for the kids to go down all three (not my brightest moment as a mother, but you know, a great photo, right?)

(the before- notice the smiling faces...)

about half way down the sled turns and legs and arms go flying everywhere. Elyse was in the middle of all of it. I was down the hill in .2 and everyone was screaming. Haylee was crying cause she wanted to be by Elyse, Addilyn was screaming cause she saw that there was snow on Elyse's face and Elyse was the only one with a ligament reason to cry as her face was covered in snow and a little scrap on her face. Yes she is little and again not my brightest moment. As I was trying to calm everyone down and make sure there were no major wounds, my sister Denise snapped this shot...

Now we can laugh about it.

When they weren't playing in the snow they found some fun to keep themselves entertained...

like playing the guitar to the singing elk head

Elyse found some dominoes and a bag and seriously she was entertained for at least a half hour

Thanks for letting us come up Dad. It was 'SNOW' fun!