Winter at the Cabin

I'm so behind on blogging. 

I love blogging. 

For me, it is our family journal. 

But I also feel it is a great way to get out my feelings or keep record of the little things. 

With that said, it has been hard lately to find the time and motivation to keep it up! 

Anyone else feel this way? 

With all the technology taking over our lives somedays I feel like all I do is check my computer, iPad,  and phone!! So annoying! I've tried the past few weeks to really take a break and focus on my kids and other things instead. One day I even turned it off completely so I could rest! We haven't been feeling very well the last week and we all needed some serious rest! 

Which has been extremely refreshing. And we are all doing much better. 

But with everything that I seem to commit to- something has to give.  That might be why my blog has been totally neglected. 

I dont ever want to give it up completely, I still love looking back through the years and reading about our lives. It's amazing how time seems to be flying by and how quickly I forget the little things. 

So maybe the posts won't be as frequent- or as detailed, but they will be coming! I'm actually thinking about doing a separate blog with only home/building/design work. Thoughts? Then keeping this one completely personal.  (I go back and forth! Because keeping up one blog is work enough!) 

Anyway, it's already 2015- I started this simple blog in 2007! I have made over 900 posts!! Im not about to quit now! 

So on to Winter at the Cabin!

We love going to Island Park in the winter, it might be our favorite time. Mainly because you have no reason to do anything! You can sit in front of the fire and read all day- take naps, go sledding, built snow forts, slides, whatever you want! I usually end up wearing the same sweats all weekend, while reading and watching movies! The hardest part is always coming home!

This winter we have been so busy we actually haven't made it hardly at all! We made some last minute plans and went! We weren't planning on doing anything over the extended weekend because of  Martin Luther King day, and my kids actually had a 4 day weekend because of a Teacher Inservice day- so we loaded things up early Friday morning and headed to the Cabin.
The Weather was terrible! We drove about 30 miles/hr the entire way! I actually slept! But Randall said it was a white out most of the way and the roads were very slick. Just as we were coming up the hill into the subdivision where the Cabin is I woke up to some curse words... Randall saying them- not me!! I sat straight up and noticed we were going backwards down the steep hill!!!

We were pulling the snow-machine trailer behind our suburban and because of the weight and the slick roads, the trailer lost traction and pulled us backwards down the hill! It wouldn't have been so scary if the hill wasn't a steep incline off to one side... the side we just happen to be headed for!!

We ended up jack-knives in the middle of the road, wedged between a large snowdrift! We completely had the road blocked and were totally stuck! Seeing Randall worry made me a nervous wreak! It didn't help that all the kids were crying!!!
Not long after we stopped- and realized we weren't going to get out, Randall unloaded the trailer hoping to make it lighter. It didn't help.
(The picture on the left shows the steep hill that the trailer about crashed down!! Yikes!)

Thank Heavens the drift was big- it stopped the trailer from going down the side of the hill! 

 Thank Heaven for tender mercies and very nice people in the world! Not long after we stopped a nice man in a van stopped and started to help us, then another truck stopped with 2 men from Utah that were more than willing to help us! And the biggest blessing, our ward just happened to be having a YW Girls Winter Campout just minutes from where we were! I immediately called them and asked for help, I was so relieved when I saw our Bishop and our good friend Darby walking up the hill with a shovel!! 

It took the 6 men about 2 hours to get everything out of the road and hooked back up! They ended up having to actually lift the trailer themselves and then prayed it wouldn't roll down the hill! I was so grateful that there was no traffic and that the weather calmed down while we were trying to get it all out. The men left shortly after and I still feel bad we weren't able to thank them and get their names, we couldn't have done it without them and we were so thankful that they helped us for so long. There really are good people in the world.  

 Once we made it to the cabin we were all pretty wore out- especially Randall! We brought our stuff in and tried to comprehend how crazy the morning/day was! Then our friends, the Merrill's, showed up and we spend the next few days eating, talking, playing in the snow, and napping. 

Randall went into some crazy "reminiscing" frenzy and talked about his "teenage years" for hours that night! Kris seem to have that effect on him! I may have slept through most of it! 

We did go out one afternoon to go sledding- we left just after 4, and by 4:30 this happened! It was beautiful. 

 We sledded down the hill for a hour or so before we came back to the cabin for hot chocolate!

 Kris buried the kids in the snow up to their waist- Olivia is pretty much standing, but buried in this picture! She loved it- she wouldn't get out! 

 Leighton and Gabby played together the whole time, Leighton is obsessed with her now! All I hear about all day is Gabby! 

 The kids loved just running around together and played nonstop. They watched movies, played ping ping, chased each other, and played hide and seek. I only took my camera out one time!  

I had a major tooth ache and had to take some major antibiotics to get rid of a terrible bone infection that was caused from my root canal. I spent a lot of time sleeping and trying to recover. It was awful.

But I lived. 

And Im glad we were able to spend those few days locked up in a warm cabin in the mountains.