Snow Much Fun

Christmas Eve day we didn't have much to do so Dustin and Kyle dragged out the mondo-bin of Legos to "play with Nate." I think most of the project involved digging around looking for specific teeny tiny legos, which meant Nate got bored fast. The big boys, however, were not bored and they had taken over the entire family room.

My sister and I were trying to come up with a project for them that would not involve 1) having to go to a public place the day before Christmas and 2) wouldn't make a mess since I didn't want to clean before our party and 3) would not require the use of the TV or family room since anytime someone walked into the room we got yelled at.

We ended up breaking out these fake snow packets I had bought. They claimed to make a gallon of snow if you just mixed it with water. I was skeptical, but it worked!! I think the kids thought I was made of magic. PS Forgive me for looking horrific. I had just gotten back from a 10 mile run.
They really wanted to have a snowball fight, but I told them they had to settle for having it sprinkled all over them.
Sadie couldn't resist making a snow angel.

After all the craziness of Christmas was over, we (Dustin) decided to take the kids to the REAL snow. I am not a big fan of being cold and I was convinced Luke would hate every single second of it, so I may have been dragging my feet a little bit. Plus it is really hard to track down snow stuff for 6 people when you live in the desert. HIGE thanks to the 4 families I ended up piecing enough clothing together from. In the end two of our really good family friends wanted to tag along, so we sort of had to go. Peer pressure is the best way to get me to do anything.

The drive up to Flagstaff was actually really nice because we swapped kids so that we had the boys in our car. It was so nice not to listen to the sibling bickering that accompanies so many long car trips. The weather was actually gorgeous out and I think the high was going to be almost 60, so I was worried there wouldn't even be snow.

When we finally pulled into the sledding park, they did mention that sledding was limited, but seeing as our kids weren't expecting much, we were supremely happy with what we ended up with. It wasn't crowded, the weather was warm enough that no one was freezing cold and the hills were just the perfect size.

Luke was the surprise of the whole trip. He absolutely LOVED sledding. We would get to the bottom of the hill and the first word out of his mouth was: AGAIN!! Even after we went so fast and far down the hill that he ended up being catapulted into a lake of melting snow and soaking wet. AGAIN!! Sadie fell off of a run on a steeper hill with the big kids, so she came over to sled with Luke and me. She would only sit in the back because she was so scared and informed me, "Heavenly Father invented the backs of things so I could be safe." The two of them were stuck to me like glue. There is nothing as exhausting as hauling a 2 year old and 4 year old AND a sled up a steep, icy hill in a continual loop.

I finally tricked them into going down the hill with Dustin a few times. The kids made a snowman (Sadie was worried about what we do since we forgot to bring carrots), snow angel, and basically wore themselves out. It was the perfect amount of time.

The Christensens spent the night in Flag with us, so we took the kids swimming at the hotel in hopes of wearing them out for bed. Sledding and swimming all in one day. Nothing like two extremes. Please note the moms did not get in. We had no desire to get cold or wet.
Then we managed to find a sit down dinner place (OK, it was a BBQ joint with plastic chairs in the basement of a building) to seat 12 of us for a surprisingly uneventful and delicious dinner. Bed and then breakfast followed by a 5 hour long shopping trip at Anthem on the way home. I was surprised we only had two moments of panic with 8 kids and no strollers.

I'm so glad that Dustin dragged me along -- kicking and screaming -- or else I would have missed out on something really fun. At least I thought it was fun. Maybe it was only such a good time because I had invented such a nightmare in my head. It was a great way to end the year with great friends and my very funny family.