We celebrated our 8 year anniversary Saturday. My aunt & uncle offered us their condo in Alpental for the long weekend. Sadly, we could only use it for one night. But that 24 hours was the best 24 hours I've had in a looooong time. It was so good for my soul to get up in the mountains, snowshoe with my family & swim in a really hot outdoor pool as the snow dumped down on us. It was magical. We slept in bunk beds, baked some cookie dough, explored the area & watched the snow fall & fall & fall & fall.
I took L on her first snowshoe hike. She loved it & did so great. No complaining, no whining, she just walked with me & stopped occasionally for a quick snow-angel. My heart was full.
The next day we threw Axel in a backpack & put snowshoes on the 3 of us. We did a longer hike. Lai did okay for almost half of it & then joined her brother in the other pack. The whining began. But, we kept the course. (I would rather be in the mountains with whiney kids than at home with whiney kids any day.) Needless to say, by the end of our excursion Ax was walking with us, Lai stayed on daddy's back & I found myself saying; "we are going to finish our hike & we are going to like it!" Ultimately, I know we were all really glad we powered through.
Thank you Aunt Sue & family for the use of your condo. I cannot tell you how many times we've heard, "when can we go back to our special home?".
Our prayers are with the families of the 4 that lost their lives in avalanches this weekend.
