Our New Year's Adventure

Our family was in the midst of enjoying our low-key, relaxing Christmas break when we heard that a large storm was dumping snow an hour north of us, conveniently where Nona's cabin is located. Our kids had been staring jealously at the pictures of happy little cousins with snowmen for the past week, so we decided to drive up and give them a taste of when real winter is like. Real winter is beautiful, thrilling, exciting...

...and kind of a pain in the neck. Nona's cabin is on a lovely steep plot of land that affords gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains, but turns out to be a little tricky to get to in the snow. Highway patrol wouldn't even let us continue on the 15 miles to Pine from Payson without putting on our snow chains. Even with the snow chains, as we tried to make it up to Nona's street we felt the horrifying sensation of our car sliding downhill as Luke tried to accelerate forward. So we parked in the semi-plowed driveway of a conveniently vacant cabin, and hiked up the rest of the way. That in itself was an adventure; the snow plows had had the same problem as we did trying to get up to Nona's street, and the snow was up to Kateri's chest, so I had to carry her most of the way, while Luke was burdened with our provisions, and Lili and Audrey were on their own. Kateri had snow pants, but the rest of us were in jeans, so when we finally reached the cabin, I had the girls strip off their snow-caked clothes and huddle under a quilt together on a couch while Luke started the fire to start warming up the cabin. I think Lili's confidence in her parents' prudence was a little shaken at this point...as I kept hearing a little voice from the depths of the quilt asking "Are we going to be okay?"

After a little lunch, a little warm-up and another hike down to the car for Luke, we were ready to enjoy the snow.

The girls were so excited...

There were a lot of firsts for them... was their first real time playing in snow,

...first time making a snow angel....first time experiencing the horrid discomfort of having freezing snow wedged in between their clothing and skin...

And also their first time sledding. The powdery snow was too dry for a snowman, but it turned Nona's unplowed street into the perfect sledding hill...

It was definitely a New Year's to remember. We spent a cozy night at the cabin (the girls and I were awestruck by the gorgeous view of the stars from Nona's porch at night) before heading back home the next afternoon. We were so blessed to have such a great little adventure, and so blessed to get home safe and sound. Thanks for sharing your cabin with us, Nona!