SNOW!

This is a post about snow, and the people who saw it.

The first weekend in January, Kim thought it would be a good idea to take Quinn sledding. She decided this Saturday night, and the only tickets available for tubing at Snoqualmie the next day was for the 9-11 session. That seemed a bit early for me, but we somehow got ready and on the road in time to make it.

Quinn sort of ready to go

Checking out the snow in the parking lot

Fully geared up

Daddy is tired, but we are here

The whole family decked out in our snow gear

So we made it up the mountain with relative ease, found parking, got everyone dressed and made it into the little lodge, tickets in hand. Now all we had to do was inner tube.

I was the first to take Quinn down the hill, and I must say I did a pretty bad job. I didn't quite figure out how we both fit in the little tubes, so my heels kicked snow into our faces the whole way down. Neither Quinn or I were fans of that. Despite this, Quinn still said he had fun, so I dragged him back up the hill for a second run. (There were tow ropes but the line was long and I thought I was in decent shape.) We both did better the second time down, but by this time Quinn had soaked his gloves and thought it was better to not wear anything.

This sort of looks like a 'let's do this' pose, but I think his hands were starting to freeze

Yep. They're frozen.

After the second round, Kim and I decided to switch. She wanted to go down with Quinn, but also wanted me to take back some excess stuff to the car. Two kids and a DSLR are a bit unwieldy in the snow. Not to mention I was sweating something fierce after dragging Quinn and a tube up the hill a couple of times. So I took the opportunity to take off some layers as well.

Kira getting sleepy while we waited for Kim and Quinn to show up

There they are!

Sort of ready to go again

Scoot

Scoot more

Here they go!

I think Quinn made it down the hill 5 or 6 times that day and that was plenty for everyone. He had fun, but his gloves were pretty crappy and that definitely impacted the fun (we of course remedied this AFTER the snowfall I'm going to talk about next). We packed up, headed home, and I for one thought that was the last of our snow adventures for a while.


The next week our friends from California, the Lincolns, came to visit. That Saturday, it started. Snow. At first, it was magical. We brought the kids out, let them run around and soak up the fun that is 'the first snow'.

Quinn venturing into the harsh winter weather

Max and Quinn exploring the sidewalk while Mommy played with the Lincoln's camera

We all had fun, and it was nice having friends around to share the moment with. We followed it up with some hot (or lukewarm for the kids) cocoa. As is tradition.

The snow continued...

The next day the Lincolns wanted to experience tubing themselves, and so we all set out for the mountain yet again. At least this time it wasn't the early session, so I wasn't quite so tired, which is good for everyone. It was a little hectic getting out of town, as the snow had set down a pretty decent cover, which prompted Kim (who insisted on driving for some reason) to propose turning back about 30 times on the way up, but we forged on. You may recognize some of the locations we hit on the way.

35th Ave in Bothell. A tad slick.

The traditional mountain pre-stop

It was definitely snowing

Kim and I got some breakfast sandwiches and Quinn got a chocolate donut. He likes those.

Quinn in back. He still looked a bit tired.

Hmm..it's looking better?

And then, no snow. Weird.

The snow did return as we climbed in altitude but we found the parking lot and spots right next to each other. Yay! You'll notice I don't have any pictures this time, as it became clear to us the first trip that having a camera and both kids up in the snow was not that fun. You'll just have to take my word for it that Quinn had a great couple of runs and was really loving tubing. But then his hands got cold, and that ended it. Stupid gloves. The Lincolns didn't have much more luck with Max and I think only got in a couple of runs themselves. Such is life with kids I guess.

We went back to the little cabin next to the parking lot, warmed up, got hot cocoa AND some sizable brownies which seemed to cheer up the kids pretty well. Imagine that. We got back to the cars, disrobed, and headed out. Unfortunately, it wasn't the easiest 'out' we've ever had.

The parking lot guys didn't realize we were leaving so they waved us down into the second parking lot. Kim realized pretty quickly this wasn't what we wanted so we headed back out, but despite the tires still turning, we stopped about halfway up the hill. Uh oh. I jumped out and tried pushing, which sort of worked, but we got stuck again a foot or so further. Ritchie jumped out of the car the Lincolns were in and came to assist me. After some yelling, some pushing, and some running behind the car, we finally got out of the lot. At the time we were leaving, the westbound traffic was now required to use chains, and the eastbound traffic (us) was required to have traction tires, which we didn't have, so it was pretty slow going on the way back. I did snap some pictures of the pretty landscape though.

Look, snow!

Look, frozen waterfalls! and snow!

We made it back home safe and sound, said farewell to the Lincolns and once again, I thought the worst of the snow days might be behind us. I'm pretty dumb though.

The snow continued...again

Snowpocalypse, as the news liked to call it, hit us pretty hard Tuesday so I ended up working from home the rest of the week. Wednesday, we thought we'd try our hand at playing in the snow and play we did. We have evidence and everything!

Kira braved the weather with the rest of us...from the porch

Why are we out here Mom and Dad?!

Look, snow...everywhere!

Quinn and I stacking some snow. It never quite became a snow man, but oh well.

She's so cute!

Still cute!

We're bonding!

The epic snow mound of doom! Quinn liked to slide down it almost prompting me to build a snow slide. Maybe next time.

She's cuter than I am, but I think I hold my own.

The cutest girls of all!

The family posing...in the street. Super safe.

Kira was pretty tuckered out after all the fun

I don't remember why he got sad but...

...chocolate fixes most problems. As is tradition.

So that's basically it. It thawed out Saturday and the only reminder of our snowy past are the former snow men (or mounds of doom) that still linger long past the melt of their brethren. I have to say, I don't miss it.