Snowpants and Sunglasses

Taking full advantage of a day off school, we made our own snow day today.  For Christmas, I got a pair of snow boots and Dave got a Garmin GPS, so we wanted to test both out with a little day trip.  And we just wanted to fly down a hill on a saucer sled and throw snow balls at each other too!  Suzi the Nuvi directed us how to climb up out of the valley and over the clouds we've had covering us for weeks to the sunny, pine-scented mountain air of Pinecrest. 

 

The frozen lake and snow-covered rocks made Pinecrest very beautiful in the winter.  The weather was gorgeous. We started in coats and mittens, but shed them after an hour as it reached 60 in the sun!

After lunch, the first thing to happen in the snow was a big ole snow ball fight.  The sleds became shields and the only thing protecting me was the camera I was holding!

Then the girls started the hour of sledding they did off the boat launch ramp onto the frozen lake. This was a very mild slope, so Delia was brave enough to try this year!
.

We were happy to bump into some friends who actually have a son in Ella's kindergarten class!  Ella said her favorite part of the day was going down the hill with Mitchell.  We liked pooling all our sleds together to increase the options too!

The last thing we did before heading home was take a little hike to the campground we stayed at this summer.  Our site was looking pretty different from the last time we saw it!

Our beloved boulder proved to be just as fun in the winter as in the summer.  Today we could actually leap off it into knee-deep snow to pad the landing.  As you can imagine, our two little monkeys could hardly be dragged away from this fun.

On the drive home we marveled at the view of the cloud-covered valley.  It looked like a white blanket.  As we descended back into the clouds, watched everything turn gray again and put away the sunglasses, we once again felt thankful for the great place we live.  Blue skies and snowy mountains are just a short drive away!