Friday, January 9, 2009

Snow!



A little while ago, it was so cold here that I told Skyler "If it rains, it's going to snow on the mountain!" Sure enough, a couple of days later it started raining and our nearby mountain was full of snow. We decided to head up there to play in it for an afternoon before it all melted.

Here it is, from a distance. We're about 10-15 minutes from the base of the mountain but then it takes about another 20-25 to get up to the top.


We drove up and they had the road closed about 2 miles from the top because of ice on the roads. We parked where we could and got out. Skyler was THRILLED with the amount of snow there was (trust me, it was very little!) but she didn't care. She jumped out and immediately started making snowballs to throw at me!

She was determined to sled down whatever slope we could find. She wasn't going very fast but having a blast!



Then she got the great idea (yeah, right) to walk the rest of the way to the summit of the mountain. Now this coming from the girl who can't walk down the block without asking to be held. I never thought she'd make it but we didn't have a schedule. I thought I'd just let her try and see how far we got. We could always turn around.

Here she is at the beginning of the hike. It's pretty much all up hill and the shady spots were very icy. She stopped every time there was a patch of snow to try and make a snow angel.


or to just climb in the snow

We were about 3/4 of the way up and she got thirsty. Well, I didn't bring ANYTHING with me. Hey, I didn't think we'd get a block, much less 2 miles! I had a bottle of water and snacks in the car but nothing with me. So, I told her to eat snow, only the untouched snow. Nothing that had been touched, stepped on, poked at, or peed on. That seemed to tide her over for a while. But she was determined to keep going!

Notice in this picture that the road is still clear of snow. There's ice in patches but most of the snow is still on the sides of the road.


Then we turned the corner and everything was just covered!


Then we went down our secret little sledding road that nobody really knows about and she really got some good sledding in.



After we were done sledding it was time to head back to the car before it got dark. That is when the real complaining started. She was fine with leaving, in fact I pulled her on the sled for probably 1/4 of the way. After that she CRIED . THE . ENTIRE . WAY . DOWN! She was cold, she was itchy (probably from being a little wet), she was tired, she was thirsty, she HATED the snow, she never wanted to come back to the snow, she's so glad we don't live in the snow...I heard it all. I was so happy to get back to the car! It was a tough day of hiking and being cold but it was worth it!