Wake up.
Get kids ready.
Pack lots of extra clothes because we don’t own snow gear. (Include borrowed jackets from the Mcgarvey’s)
“Bring every pair of pants you own! And lots of socks!”
Check snow hotline and find out that tire chains are required.
Head to the sporting good’s store a few days before Christmas to try and find chains.
Get in what I call a stress fracture fight.
Want to drive back home and THROW IN THE TOWEL.
Get on phone with the friends who are going with us, trying to decide if we should drive up if we need chains.
They call hotline and chains are no longer required.
Then they call again and they are required again.
We just decide to buy the damn chains already and start the drive.
None of us want to deal with chains, so we decide to just stop lower down the mountain to play if chains are in fact required.
But first we have to stop and grab some breakfast to go.
We finally hit the road.
Stop an hour later to meet friends in pre-arranged meeting place.
Everyone has to go to the bathroom.
Laugh that this is the most irritating way to spend a morning – getting ready to go to the snow.
Drive to mountain.
Drive up mountain.
Stop at mandatory chain turn out and start putting on chains. There is no snow to play in yet.
It is freezing and windy.
Jeff doesn’t know how to do it. I don’t know how to do it.
Brett, Billie, Gray start waving at us from up the hill a bit – the mandatory chain rule was suddenly lifted.
So we throw the chains back in the car and start driving back up the mountain.
Kids freak at the first sight of snow.
I freak at the first sight of snow.
Drive a short distance later and come to a complete stop.
For like fifteen minutes.
“What is going on up there? Is it an accident? Is it another required chain stop?”
Hop out of car and walk back in traffic to ask the others what they want to do.
Walk to front of traffic line and see that it is indeed another required chain stop.
At one time, all decide, “Screw this.”
Two cars make a u-turn.
And head down the mountain just a ways to the first innertube place we came across.
Decide it will do just fine.
Get out of car.
Put five children and four adults into whatever random snow gear the 9 of us had brought along.
This takes at least thirty minutes.
The snow pants I borrowed would not zip up.
Wait in line to enter the park.
Start a mean snowball fight and get in trouble because you are hitting random people in line.
Parents lead you to a quiet corner for a snowball fight.
The little guy always wins.
Fill out release forms.
Finally, finally, finally enter and begin sledding.
Spend a whopping one and a half hours sledding before the finger’s start to get numb and the cheeks start to hurt from the cold.
Head out.
Stop at a diner just down the road and order as much hot chocolate and hot tea and beer (Oops, not beer – sorry, no liquor license yet.) that you can handle.
Make the kids sit at an opposite table.
Look at, and share, the Instax photos from the day.
Think that Drew looks like he should be in a Wes Anderson film.
Say good-bye with full tummies and head home.
Sit in traffic for three hours.
Lose your patience more than once and wish for the sudden disappearance of anyone on I-10.
Almost get in an accident – car pulls out in front of me very suddenly and I swerve to miss, nearly hitting someone in next lane. So close I honestly do not know how it didn’t happen. MERE INCHES.
Gain your patience and perspective.
Drive home.
(Do laundry.)
And that my friends, is how the Whitney’s play in the snow.
(The puffy white stuff in your front yard isn’t sounding so bad right now is it?)
xo
Tara
P.S. The Instax shot of the kids in the car was taken while we waited for Jeff who was getting chains in the store. Just saying that now before I get emails about how I drove AND took a photo while my kids had no seatbelts on.
Ahhh…Tara, this post is so great! As someone who is a Midwesterner getting PUMMELED with snow right now, it’s refreshing to read about a Cali family getting to experience it once a year :)
PS – BTW, have you read Don Miller’s “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” yet? If not, I think you should. Reading this post of yours made me realize you created the kind of story for your family he’d be so so proud of.
Gail, I have not. I will check it out. Thank you. :)
Enjoy that snow.
ha
amazing story….sounds something like what would happen in MY car LOL….my favorite line was the last one though…..i literally laughed OUTLOUD at my computer….
and here i was coming to your blog to enter the closed contest from earlier just to make you smile ;)
have a great day!!! :)
Tanya! ROFL
love ya :)
I’m so HAPPY you got to play in the SNOW!! I remember you Tweeting about wanting to play in the snow a while back! :) FUNFUNFUN!!! :)
Gracious. Come to Northern Minnesota. It’s so much easier! We even have a sidewalk luge track.
FANTASTIC!!!!! We’ve had lots of snow here in Tennessee this year and were extremely unprepared. Took the little guy sledding in his plastic kiddie pool. It’s a miracle no one died! Love, love, love memories like this. Your kids will be telling this story to their grandkids one day!!
Ok…now that is funny. And so true, so true. Next time, you’ll know to bring a flask to “warm” the hot cocoa!
Miss Whitney…please tell me you did not have to PAY to go innertubing!!! Only in California!!! Come here where we innertube, crazy carpet, GT snowracer until our hearts are full…then we fill our tummies(with beer and wine most definitely because we are Canadian after all) and head back out!!! I have the hugest grin on my face right now. Yay for snow!!
i LOVE that first inner tube photo. wow. wow. wow.
After reading this, I should never take our mountains of snow on our lawn 5-6 months a year for granted. (although I sure wish I could be closer that a 3-4 hour plane ride away from a warm ocean….)
It’s because you need to come to Utah to do the tubing thing right. Get over here and we’ll show you how it’s done. Sans entry fee and forms, of course.
that is hilarious! i know the feeling- we have 8 kids and almost always you just finish getting everyone’s stuff on and someone has to pee. grrr… with so many people it always makes for an interesting outing. we live in Flagstaff, AZ and have gotten pummeled with snow, try 5 ft, and that was just in a few days time.
Love your day even if it took some work!
but you are right, loving the snow in my yard right about
now LOL! can you believe that my girls have NEVER been sledding?! and we live near chicago. the reason being
that whenever it does snow, it’s too darn cold, and when
it warms up enough the snow is gone! we will do it this year now that they are old enough to stand the cold a little better!
tara
I think I need an Instax camera.
Which mountains did you guys go to? It looks like home. :) I miss home. I’ve been in NC for the last 4 years and I really miss the mountains and the snow and California in general!
cracking up, because we can’t get away from it here in the midwest, and you all go in search of it! oh well, we’re not 15 minutes from the beach, either. i’d rather be close to that, for sure!!! ;)
Dude!
Come to the great white north. Snow makes everything a process… I’ll give you that. But, it also asks you to commit – and I like, too. OH I LOVE SNOW. The beach is nice, but SNOW IS MAGICAL.
that sounds very tiring.
when our kids go sledding….i send them with daddy. the snow gear and the cold and the whining and the crying and the sleds…it is TOO muc stress for me.
but at least we can drive down the road…not 3 hours.
they will remember that forever though!
good mommy.
what a great time! Gray has been BEGGING to go back – this momma knows after all the hassle and craziness that this will be a once a year trip. save the chains for next year!!!
FUN! Glad you made it out and that the snow did “happen.” :)
Looks like fun. Thanks for the perspective. Yes, sitting here in MN with tons of snow, the girls just bundle up and go outside. No car rides, borrowed snow equipment, or chains on car tires. Although, I would trade this snow in a minute to be so close to the ocean. :)
Sara M
Well when you break it down like that it does sound like a lot of hassle and stress for a little fun in the snow, especially to this mid-western gal where the white stuff is a plenty. But if it’s any consolation…my family puts in just as much effort (and stress) for a little beach front activity. Ha! Looks like everyone had a great time.
This cracked me up. We are in central NY and had a snow day today. My kids take about two minutes to get ready – throw on a turtleneck, tuck pants in socks, put on snow pants, boots, gloves, hats – and hit the backyard to go sledding down our hill. We have been enjoying our little hill all winter and this post makes me enjoy it all the more.
Although it can wear on you, a freshly fallen snow is one of the most beautiful things to see. Especially at night when it glistens in the moonlight.
I can bet you that I was one of the cars doing a U-TURN!!The benefit of southern California is Big Bear, but then when it snows, we all show up at the same time :)
love me some snow, sun and flare!
so funny…sounds like us in the midwest packing up getting ready to drive an hour to get to lake michigan & park & walk & unpack it all for about a hour before a huge storm comes in and they evacuate the water/beach! my kids just pack in on & go out in the yard & sled/make forts/snowball fights, etc.
oh how i would so much better luuuuuv to be 15 mins. from the beach on any given day!
ps: the flare shot of you & the hubs is awwwesome! that would be framed on the nightstand at my house: perfect-O!
There really is an easier way, email me.
There really is an easier way, email me.
By the way, really good work. Can’t wait on your next one!
Those photos are PRICELESS Tara! Priceless. I have some wonderful memories similar to this exact story, only we’d stop somewhere in Big Bear that my dad knew about that had a great hill for sledding – the one crap sled we had from Target or something for yeeeears. :) I’m jealous you guys even made it up there, my friends and I have been wanting to go too, but without the chain hassle.
I think I’ll go out and kiss the 10 or so inches in the front and back yards, thanking them for “being there” just in case we want to play….
or
maybe I’ll just come to your place and tell you how living in wisconsin is all good and everything, but that I’d take the sun and the surf and the sand ANYDAY !
HAHA!!! Sounds like our trip to Big Bear a few years ago. When we counted up all the kids at the end of the day and realized we were missing one, we debated if we should actually go find him:)
LOL!!! I’d still rather deal with one sucky day of snow than 4.5 sucky months of cold wet snow. I love ya but I’m not feeling bad for you (ha ha ha) :) I’ll trade you any day my friend :P
I am such a fair weather skier. For every reason you just outlined. Love the picture of you and Kenna’s shadow :)
You make snow look like soo much fun!! North Dakota is full of it and i look out the window and wish my hubby and wish i lived in Cali!!!
sounds like an Aussie day in the snow :) Except we leave home at 4:00am to avoid all the morning stuff and end up being in the first row of cars. Last time we ignored the chain warning and got to the entrance and they made us go back and hire some. Your younger boy looks much like my youngest :)
So beautiful and perfect I can’t hardly stand it!!!
How adorable is that little guy in the tube?! I can so relate to every word of this post. My in laws live in Big Bear, and every time we go to visit them, I have visions of snow angels and frolicing with deer in the snowy wonderland. By the time we turn Running Springs, someone is carsick, the others are screaming at each other, and I have accused my husband of trying to kill us on the road. Screaming, “We’re all gonna DIIIIIIE!!!” does not tie into the winter wonderland dream. Ha!
Next time your in San Diego and want to learn to put snow chains on your car
http://www.chainsbysnowbird.com/
Everyone says he is the best I am actually gonna go before I go to the snow. But be prepared I hear there an hour
Love the photo of Nathan and his hair. Although there are so many gorgeous pics there. Snow day yesterday, delayed start this morning. I love snow. We’re off skiing this weekend. I hate crowds and lines and rules, so probably just as well we live here, not there.
After the third blizzard in two weeks, we on the east coast could use some California sun at this point.
I am from Virginia and my kids have gone to school 2 out of the last 10 school days. They are off today playing the Wii. Yes, you are right…totally nice for them to go and play in our backyard. Added bonus that our backyard and those of our neighbors are perfect sleighriding yards. Big hills. They have been using pool tubes and flying! Thanks for the reality check…the snow days are starting to get to me! :)
I am very interested in your Instax camera…I need to check that out!
Have a great day!
laughing. I can picture it now. I’m just wondering how many people told you your pants aren’t zipped. love the details. I would love to get one of those instax cameras…wondering where to get the best price? looks like fun.
Sounds like when we go on an outing!