A Dream Come True

For the past month, I have been thinking about renting a cabin in the snow. I looked at posts on the VRBO website and really thought about it, but never pulled the trigger. Then it was too late, they were all rented. At the last minute, I decided to look in Overgaard instead of Pinetop and lo and behold...people do not clamor to Overgaard the way they do Pinetop. So off we went from Friday to Sunday. Just the fam. and a cabin. and a couple sleds. and some puzzles. and some movies. and some art projects. and some books. and plenty of hot chocolate. Thank Heavens.

All my planning paid off because it was really fun. We spent the first day painting and coloring and started a really really hard puzzle of glow-in-the-dark dolphins.




I wish I had taken pictures of the art strewn all over the house. Life sized paintings of Dora and all her sidekicks. Horses, flowers, fairies...girl stuff. I couldn't help but think of Nicole and all her boys at their cabin at the same time. Betcha it wasn't covered in artwork. My girls take their art very seriously!

Here's Kylee and Addie sippin hot chocolate. Actually, it's probably Chomba Chai because that's what Kylee likes.

The next day we went sledding. We drove to Forest Lakes because the snow at our cabin was mostly melted. It was only 20 minutes away, but we couldn't find it so it took an hour and a half to get there. It was worth it though. I think I had more fun than the kids! Fun hill, fun sleds.


Go Kinsey!


Doesn't Addie look happy?

Of course Addie always wants to be with her Mommy. Climb up, sled down, climb up, sled down.

Greg is handicapped (knee surgery) so there are a lot of pictures of yours truly. Woo hoo. It WAS fun though. Here are all the kids piled on a tube. No, they didn't crash (miracle) It was awesome.




You should have seen the kids getting out of the car. They were piling on clothes and DYING at how cold it was. By the time we hiked to the hill, they were DYING of heat stroke and taking off coats. Dax didn't want his hat or gloves. GLOVES?!

Gloves back on to eat the snow. He carried this around taking bites out of it. I'm sure it was a healthy snack. I'm such a good mom.


Here's Greg hobbling back to the car. Kylee stayed to keep him company, isn't she nice? Every time Greg stepped on a soft spot he'd sink to his knee - and with his knee stuck in locked position he can't bend it so Kylee had to pull him out. It was slow going. Of course that's me in the nice warm car taking pictures. Hey, somebody's got to do it!


Back at the cabin I made white chicken chili and we watched movies and did puzzles. The little kids crashed. The big kids stayed up and watched a movie while I made bagels then we ate them with strawberry cream cheese at about midnight. Yummy. It was a perfect day - and guess what was even better? It was snowing when we woke up in the morning! It snowed all day. It was so pretty. Check out our front yard.

Sending Addie down on her own.



She LOVED the snow. It was so fun to watch her wander around in it and explore all the new scenery. I love this girl! All the diapers and the "one more book", and the "I want the dancing dora, not true princess dora, no wait wait, Diego and the Dinosaurs, no, Holly Hobby, I want Holly Hobby" --totally worth it. What, you haven't heard that from your 2 year old? Yes, Holly Hobby.

Kinsey's Snow Angel on the road.

Sweet Saydie. Always smiling, even under her neck-warmer.

Dax's precious snowball. He asked me in his concerned little voice if he could throw it at me. He is the nicest boy, I'm sure he gets that from his mom. :) If only I could get him to stop crying all the time! (he must get that from Greg, ha ha)

Addie saw these two wood pieces and ran over there to do this "trick" Tricks are very popular this family. She was barely able to spread her legs this far apart. She was pretty impressed with herself.

Mom's love cold little cheekies!

Dax's crash landing into the trees. "That was sweet!" He said, then he rolled off the sled onto a little tiny rock and cried for 10 minutes. (sigh)

Our game of snowball suicide. The snow was very fluffy and hard to pack into snowballs so Saydie was very protective of this snowball - for about 5 minutes. Then she was bored so we played catch until we dropped it, and it was destroyed. No second chances for that little ball...
This is what little boys do in the snow. They find a stick and start hitting everything they see. (Then they break their stick and cry...)

When Addie saw all the snow outside, she was totally excited about all the "Christmas trees" out there. She was singing songs and running from tree to tree. Then she found this "little Christmas tree" and spent some quality time with it. "I'm going to go get that little Christmas tree" "I'm in the Christmas tree, bouncing bouncing bouncing, falling, whoa! It's slippery, I almost falled down in there, I'm going to stay in this Christmas tree" She destroyed the poor bush, but it was entertaining.


Taking a break to catch snow, but not leaving the tree.

I love this picture. The hat she couldn't keep up and the red nose and shiny lips. I am trying to imprint every little thing about her childhood on my brain but it's not making it past my Alzheimers.

We had to pack up the car in the snow and then drive through the mountains in a snowstorm but it was a small price to pay. What a great vacation! Anyone want to come next year?