Snow day!

We haven't had the blizzards that are happening in the rest of the country, but we have had lots of rain near our house and lots of snow on Mt. Hood, which is fairly close by.  We've been waiting for a day with clear skies to go and check out the snow with the kids, and today turned out to be that day. 

We started out optimistically and energetically for the mountain, aiming for a ski place midway up that had toboggans for rent and even a toboggan rope-tow!  However, it seemed that every person in Oregon had the same idea, and pretty soon we were inching along in a huge traffic jam and still at least 10 miles away from the turnoff to our destination. 

I'm not very patient in these situations, which is not one of my better qualities, but we had left at 9 am and I decided that I could handle waiting in traffic until 11 am (when we really should have already been at the place by 10:30 at the latest) but then we'd have to change plans.  At 11, we were still more than 10 miles away from even turning towards where we wanted to go.  Luckily, Sacha was on board with the idea of changing plans, and with the help of a friendly but directionally challenged ranger at the ranger station, we found a turnoff to a federal road that had plenty of snow to play on.  It was not the road the ranger tried to direct us to (she said it would be on the right, when really, we realized as we were leaving, it was on the left), but the road we found was just fine anyway. 



We had a huge amount of fun.  It was the most pure fun the four of us have had in a long time.  The kids both LOVED the snow, and they also loved the toboggan we had brought with us.  We found some small hills to ride down and tried that first with a parent....and then without!  

Both kids successfully went down a decent-sized hill all by themselves several times.  It was awesome.  We learned how to make snow angels, how to eat snow, how to make snowballs, and how to generally admire the beauty all around us.  Mateo decided he definitely wants to try ski lessons (and so do I) and Natalia does, too, when she's old enough. 

We had such a great time that it was worth the hours of driving that the whole thing required.  We left our house at 9 am and got back at 2 pm, and spent about an hour and a half of that actually playing in the snow.  Luckily, we stopped on the way back to get some lunch, because a giant meltdown was looming on the horizon.  That would have been from me and Sacha - the kids were acting just fine! 

We finished our day with a spontaneous playdate with some friends who live close by, which was very fun, and then things disintegrated after they left.  Neither Mateo nor Natalia had napped, which turned out to be Very Bad.  And so, now, at 6:45, Tali is already in bed and Mateo is headed there.  It was a big day for them and we really thought they would nap in the car, but they didn't. 

In any case, despite the manic overtiredness of the afternoon, the morning was worth it anyway.  It was so, so much fun.  We'll probably go back again at some point, although I'm not sure if it will be for lessons in February or if we'll get our acts in gear to just go up and play before that.  Anyway, it was so much fun, in fact, that I feel I must overload this post with photos of the fun.  Here they are! 

Check out those matching snowsuits and their boots - all craigslist finds!

First tobaggan ride (and right before ditching the parents entirely)

Tali, standing on this funny white stuff

This kid loves the snow.  He loves it.  Seriously.  He hated it at two, but loves it at four.

This gorgeous creek ran right under the snow-covered bridge we were playing on.  The sun was shining, the creek was running, the snow was beautiful - a slice of heaven!

Proud kid on a huge snowball, or possibly just a large rock...

His very first snow angel

This snow is DELICIOUS!  Tali said it tasted like chocolate.

Last ride with a parent before striking out on their own

This is FUN!

SO MUCH FUN! 

Couldn't get enough of the view.

This kid insisted on being buried like at the beach.  And so we did.  Happy winter!