Bringing in 2011 in the snow

More traditions. Dave wants to do three things every year for the holiday season. First, we will try to go up to the Polar Express sometime after Thanksgiving. Second, Christmas morning will most likely be held at our house with our immediate family. And lastly, to rent a cabin up in Mormon Lake between Christmas and New Years. This year was a success with all three things.

At the beginning of last week, Dave was disappointed with the predicted forecast. He read that it was going to be in the 40's with no chance of snow. A few days before our trip, Dave's disappointment turned into more excitement as he saw there was going to be snow and a high in the 30's.

We left on Thursday, December 30 to head up to our rented cabin. On Wednesday night, the snow started and it was so bad that I-17 (the main highway to get to our destination) was closed. By noon, the road was reopened but then we heard that it was closed again. We met up with Uncle Dusty, Aunt Jamie and Molly in North Phoenix and the men had a brief meeting about what we should do. We decided to go for it.

Even while still in Phoenix, we could see snow on all the mountain tops and in some spots there was already snow on the ground. Typically, the snow can't be seen until we get past the Sedona exit which is just south of Flagstaff. As we drove, we had no idea what kind of conditions we would run into. Surprisingly enough, there were only a few spots that made Dave say, "Now, a two-wheel drive vehicle (which is what we have) should not be driving in these conditions." The two-lane highway had a path of only one-lane of clean pavement.

The road to get to Mormon Lake was not clean, but packed down and not too icy. It helped that it was barren and very wide. It was gorgeous driving through the covered pines. At last, we made it to Mormon Lake just before sunset. We "moved in" then went to dinner at the Mormon Lake Lodge.

 We had one building, with two separate  cabins. It was a nice setup so that the babies could nap and sleep in one while the adults could talk and not worry about being super quiet in the other.

Our first night was spent staying up late while playing Scattegories. It was so typical when playing with Dusty and Dave, but so much fun. It created some great memories and added to our "snowed in" experience.

Before going to bed, Dave needed to bring Vaughn back over to our cabin. I had already fallen asleep but was woken up by Vaughn's first sentence, "Hi...mom.......hi...mom. Mom...hi," with his little hands touching my leg. His pack n' play was right next to my bed. Dave had gone into the bathroom to get ready for bed not realizing Vaughn was wide awake and wanting to play. We eventually moved his pack n' play away from our bed which helped Vaughn realize it was 4am and still sleepy time.

On New Year's Eve, Vaughn woke us up at 8:30am. We couldn't wait to take him outside to play in the snow and use my Christmas present (a fun new lens that I have no idea how to use yet). We put Vaughn's hat, mittens and vest on then set him free...on the porch. The very first thing he did was grab a handful of snow and put it where else, but in his mouth. This picture was his immediate reaction:

We then took him down to the big snow piles outside of our cabin. He wasn't quite sure what to do with all the snow. It was estimated that Mormon Lake had gotten over 30 inches of snow in the previous 48 hours. That is a lot of snow. Dave and I aren't even used to that much.

Despite the frigid temperatures, Vaughn was just excited to touch and throw the snow. We only let him play for ten minutes or so until it was time to head down to the lodge for brunch. We missed breakfast by ten minutes! Lunch food worked well though, too.

We spent New Year's Eve with each other, lounging around and eating lots of food. Vaughn even napped for three hours. By the time evening rolled around, Vaughn was hyper and not ready for bed until 10:30pm, which is over three hours past his normal bedtime. We decided to bend the rules for this one fun night of the year. It was almost 2011!

 

Soon after Vaughn fell asleep, I fell asleep. I really tried to stay up until midnight, but the night before and no nap didn't help me much. Dusty, Jamie and Dave all rang in the New Year together. Does it count that I was up for Eastern time's New Year and that Dave woke me up at midnight to give me a kiss then I fell back to sleep? Either way, it was so wonderful to all be together as we entered a new year.

During the middle of the night, Vaughn woke us up again, but this time he was crying. The first thing I noticed when I sat up was how my nose was very cold. I went over to pick Vaughn up and his little hands and feet were so cold even with all his blankies and footy fleece pajamas. I woke Dave up so he could turn our heater on. I looked at our thermometer and it was only 50 degrees in the room. Before we went to bed, it was 78 and Dave was sweating.

Dave soon discovered that the power was out! The temperature outside was NEGATIVE 25 and we had no power. The whole town of Mormon Lake was without electricity and it was 25 degrees below 0. Thank God we had a gas fire place that was holding some heat in the cabin.

Dave called Dusty to make sure they knew which they did and already had Molly in bed with them. Dave and I both looked at Vaughn and said, "Well, it looks like you're going to get to sleep with mommy and daddy tonight." We put an extra pair of pajamas underneath his fleece ones, a second pair of socks and his winter hat. He was a little cuddle bug right in between the two of us. It took him a few minutes to fall asleep but when he did, it made the cold cabin so worth it. I wish I had my camera to show how sweet it was to look next to me and see such a beautiful sleeping baby and his daddy next to him.

As soon as we woke up around 8:30am, it was go time. We went into action mode and got the whole cabin packed up, Vaughn wrapped in lots of blankets, and the car warmed up and scraped so we could drive into Flagstaff for some breakfast. 

We ended up eating at a little diner Dave and I ate at before in downtown Flag. It was cute and the food was exactly what we needed. Vaughn ate a huge blueberry pancake and drank a whole cup of milk.

Our trip ended in a crazy way with record-breaking low temperatures and no electricity, but it was still such a great trip. The drive up was great, the snow was perfect, the conversations were wonderful, the babies had fun playing together, and we all got to spend 2010 ending and 2011 beginning together.