Snow Trip! (week 417)

After three years of drought and very little rain in California, there hasn't been much snow in the mountains around us. This year, following two big storms, we headed for the hills at Frazier Park to meet up with our Cousins and Grandparents for three nights and four days of crafts, cookies, pancakes, and sledding.  It was our second time at Frazier Park (Pine Mountain).

This year, we went to the mountains the week before Christmas and boy did we get lucky. While there was no snow at the cabin level, there was 6-10 inches of snow at 8,300 feet where the campgrounds and trail heads lead up into Mt. Pinos. The weather was really snowy, foggy, windy, and cold the first day.  In fact, we could only stay out for about 1.5 hours before we had to retreat to the warm cabin until the afternoon.  The weather got better each day, but with the sun and warm weather also came the ice.  By the last day, the sledding runs were so hard and icy that Grandpa Mike (at 72) and daddy (with his 72 year old back) had to stop hurtling down the hill--only Eli and I could handle it.

At the cabin, we spent a lot of time watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Special, decorating gingerbread houses, playing Farm-opoly, and practicing magic tricks.  This year, Uncle Josh was not able to join us until the last night.  The clutch in their car broke as they were leaving the house.  That was when the problems started.  So they took their Subaru to the auto mechanic who started working right away.  But when they tried to leave the mechanic, the battery in their other car died! After replacing that battery, they went ice skating. Shortly thereafter, they got a call from their mechanic who informed them that their car had fallen off the lift and was totaled!  Ultimately, Aunt Andrea, Eli and Sophie came up the next morning in the Honda but Uncle Josh had to stay back to work out the issues with insurance and everything else.  He made it up for the last night and we had a lot of fun playing games and sledding the next day.

All in all it was an awesome family reunion and our second annual snow trip with our cousins.  We are all getting bigger but love our cousins and becoming fast friends.   We hope to have 30 more years of Christmas snow trips with our cousins.

This week, we also visited Naples Island, Long Beach to see all of the Christmas decorations.  As always, we weren't disappointed.  The houses and lights were incredible! The Armstrongs, Hubers, and Keislers marched around the canals for about 90 minutes with many other kids and families from the Long Beach community. Some of our favorites were the houses that recreated scenes from our favorite movies.  We are lucky to have such a great city with so many neat neighborhoods!