Fun in UT Sun and Snow (part 2)

Abigail with my baby sister Nicole

Abbie is all bundled up ready to ride up to the cabin on the snowmobile for her first time. When it snows a lot the only way to get to the cabin is by snowmobile. My Dad has two sleds that he pulls behind snowmobiles that gets up all our gear. With the whole family going up it's a half day process.
But these two girls are all smiles and don't seem to mind - for now anyways.

 After we got all our gear up it was time to play in our winter wonderland. Hayden is really into snowball fights. She thinks saying those two words are so funny.

 

She also LOVED sledding, especially since it was so easy pezy for her!! We would ride down the hill and then I would pull her back up.  She told me every time that she wanted to go far and to go fast.

 

 

 Carter and Lex on one of Grandpa's snowmobiles.

 This is my adorable nephew Sawyer!! He has striking red hair and a smile full of personality.

 Nic, Aubrey, Kenna, KK, Syd, Carter, and Emi hanging out on the back deck.

 Lexi with the coolest dog ever Scouty.

 Here we are heading up to the Upper Meadow where we will start sledding down a 5 minute sledding hill at least. It is fast and bumpy and you have to be pretty careful with your steering or else you will end up slamming face first into a snowbank. IT IS A BLAST!!

 My brother Dan and his son Sawyer are riding on the back of the "dog sled" that's towing the sleds. I kept thinking how cool and brave Sawyer was and how awesome it is my sibling's kids treat this like it is nothing because it's all they know - it was all I knew growing up, too. I thought too bad that my kids won't be acclimated to this sort of activity and all the "hard core" things my family does in the summer as well. But to my delight and relief, it turned out that riding on the back of the "dog sled" turned out to be one of Hayden's favorite things to do as well. Click here to see a video of us riding up to the upper meadow.

 Carter, Timmy, and me.

 Uncle Chris taking up Hayden.

 She got pretty worn out and fell asleep on my Dad.

 There is a story behind this picture: This video is what started it all. So Lexi is Chris's oldest and she is "hard core" just like her Dad. :) It's actually pretty humorous to see the girl version of him - only she is much more loving and gentle than he was at that age.  So at the bottom of the sledding hill Lexi decided to go up a snowbank and catch some air into a pile of trees and snow.  It was pretty sweet and Chris wasn't about to miss out.  So on the next run down, my sister's (Stacey) daughter Ashlyn wanted to sled down with Chris. Chris was still bound and determined to hit that jump even though he had a 5 year old with him.  The picture below shows where they started into the air (where Chis and Ash are standing - to where they landed where Lex is standing). It was taken with my panoramic shot. It was a good 20 feet of air.  Ash landed with her head buried in the snow and a yard sale of all her snow clothes.  As you see in picture above Chris was covered in snow from very top to very bottom as well.  After Ash got over the shock of it all, she loved being the family celebrity of surviving the longest air jump yet!!

 Hayden riding behind the "dog sled."

 There's nothing like a little night sleddin with the little bro!!

 Family movie night watching Home Alone. My parents had all 15 grandkids there.

 Lily's sweet stache!!

 My brother Dan with some of the cousins.

 Timmy with Dan's Caraline.

 Sleddin!

 This was on our way up to the top of the mountain that my parent's cabin is on. It is a gorgeous ride!!

 Looking down into the valley.

 One last shot of my handsome sledding boy and a video to go with it.

 This is the next day, Sunday, when Dad took me, Hayden and Nicole to go visit Grandma Ione.  You can tell I had only been getting a couple of hours of sleep each night. I look like I had been hit by a truck. The cabin is a great place for fun, but not for sleep!! It was so great visiting with Grandma. Each time I see her I never know if it will be my last.  Abbie couldn't make it because she started throwing up in church that day - a bug was going around my family. Carter was too busy playing his new favorite game Battleship and couldn't tear himself away.  I love my Grandma and cherish each picture I get with her.

 

She gave Hayden a ride down to the cafeteria where she was going to be eating dinner.

 

 Hayden loved it and all the elderly people loved seeing Hayden!!

 My Dad is so cute with the grandkids!  Here he is playing Hungry Hippos with them.

 Grandma Yvonne has a natural gift when it comes to reading stories and using voices. The kids loved listening to her tell this story that used a "puppet." She is a pretty amazing lady. Here's a video.

We had a pretty rough ride home to say the least.  As I was buckling Abbie in to start our drive home through the night, she threw up just a little but I thought we gotta just get going. Then 5 minutes later when I stopped to gas up Hayden threw up - thanks to Grandma Karen for packing us with 2 ice cream buckets!!!! Those things saved us!!! Before we even left the city where my parents live we had 4 throw ups!!! That was just the beginning - for the next 19 hours all three of my kids were throwing up off and on. We did have some blessings though. I stayed healthy thanks to a blessing given to me by my Dad. I was able to keep my calm and patience the whole time. I had a driver for my van the whole time so I could just tend to the kids. Jay bought us a thing of hand sanitizer that was crucial and before the trip even began I just happened to pack a full pack of wipes. Carter was so tough and grown up about it all. He never whined or complained or cried about being sick. When it came time to throw up he would just do it in the bucket and be done with it - no theatrics.  He's better than I am!! That picture of my precious Hayden was just so sad - she was SOOOOO sick!! The picture of Carter was once we had gotten home I wouldn't let Matt touch the car so I got all the kids out and sent him up with them straight to the bath while I began the beginning stages of "hazmatting" the car and doing laundry. (Bonnie took the car to get detailed the next day - another huge blessing. And guess what it actually smells good in there again - I truly didn't know if that would be possible.) Once Carter got out of the bath and went into his room to get dressed he must have turned on his electric blanket - something he wanted desperately for Christmas :) - so that is him on his knees, naked, leaning onto his bed asleep wrapped in his precious blanket. I am rethinking ever doing that drive again but we will see....