Snow Trip 2010

A long time coming, but here it is. AZ was having the worst rain/snow storm most could ever remember having. There were warnings about traveling to the high country only in emergencies. Does having a reservation in a cabin constitute an emergency? We had admitted defeat and decided to stay put when Glade found a road that wasn't closed allowing access to Pine. We threw everything together in an hour or two and headed out. The drive there was completely normal, roads were good, no traffic or storms. Beautiful. Then we hit Payson about 6 pm.

It was snowing really hard. Very beautiful actually. When we started on the road to Pine, the police officer suggested we use snow chains and when we told him we weren't from here, he rolled his eyes in disgust at our not adhering the warnings. I don't blame him. The road to Pine was really snowy and icy. We drove about 30 mph the whole way, slipping every now and then. Our kids were a little freaked by the whole thing and honestly, so was I. Once we turned off the main road to the neighborhood where the cabin was is where we hit the most trouble. These aren't actual roads and no one is coming to plow them. It was still snowing pretty good and all the power was out so everything was black. We couldn't even begin to find the cabin. We tried getting up a little hill we thought led to it about 11 times. We would go as far as we could, then back down and try again until finally we made it to the top! That's where we got stuck and go figure, we needed to be at the bottom. Glade had set out on foot with a flashlight since we knew we were in the right vicinity while the rest of us waited in the van. He came back with nothing. That's when our luck changed.

A huge 4x4 pulled up with two guys in it and asked if we were ok. I heard Glade telling them we were fine, just needed to find the cabin, but we would be fine. At that point, I jumped out into the snow yelling "we are not fine!" I have much less pride than Glade. He took off again and the guys asked me if I wanted them to drive me up the road we thought it was on. I agreed quickly. Oh, BTW....this could only happen to Glade... one of the men in the truck grew up in the house right behind Glade's. He had been friends with Glade's older brother. *sigh*..only Glade. Anyway, they drove me around and we found Glade and the cabin. There was no way to get to the cabin other than walk a little ways. It was late and cold and dark. They told us to wait in the van and they would be back to get us. While driving me back to the van, they mentioned how lucky it was that they drove by when they did. I told them it was because we prayed a lot. The one guy (they both smelled of smoke and this one was missing a few teeth) says "me a guardian angel, who'd a thunk it?" I told him God works in mysterious ways. The driver stops the truck and says "are you LDS?" I told him I was and he said "me too. I smoke." I got a kick out of him rationalizing to me why he had to do it. Anyway, they came back to get us with another truck, two more men and a quad. We loaded all our stuff into the back of his truck and he took my kids 2 by 2 on the quad up to the cabin. Truly the hand of the Lord in all this.

As soon as we got to the cabin, the power came on. We didn't have any water, but it was nice to have light to get unloaded, give everyone a quick sandwich and get everyone tucked in. I wasn't in bed for 10 min when the power went out again. Thank you, God.

This was the view outside my window when we woke up. Everything was white, including the sky. Gorgeous!

It was not only gorgeous, but freezing! Everyone huddled under blankets around the fireplace. Even with that, it was still cold. Since we had no power, we had to get creative for breakfast. Luckily there was a grill, so we fixed up some Cherizo (don't know how to spell) and potatoes and melted some snow to make hot chocolate.

Nick kept the fire going for us.

Dalin didn't even bring a jacket or extra socks. I asked if he had one! He never complained though.

Even being so cold, Chelsey had to make sure her hair looked decent.

Dad decided to just stay in bed to keep warm.

Katy and Bo didn't take well to the cold. I made them cereal so they wouldn't have to wait for breakfast, but they were too cold to eat. I tried to be patient with them, but they just sat there blubbering.

This was the coveted chair. A huge oversized bean bag. Luckily it was big enough for two or sometimes even three.

After spending the day melting snow and playing games, I laid down with Bo and Katy for a nap. As they laid down next to me with their icy little fingers and toes, I started to feel really bad. The rest of us could deal with the cold and know that it was temporary and knew how to keep warm. They didn't. I muttered something about if the electricity would just come on when Bo says "we just need to pray." So we did. At that point, I decided that if it wasn't on by late afternoon, we were going home. I didn't want to do another cold, dark night with no water or heat. When we woke up, there was still no power. We had decided to go tell the kids to start packing up when ...voila...power! Thank you, God. Once we had power and heat, I decided to let the kids go play in the snow. I hadn't wanted to let them since there was no way to warm them up when they were done. They went out and played the rest of the day. Glade and I ran into town to get some jugs of water and a few more little things. By that night, we had a warm dinner, roasted marshmallows, and watched some TV. All was well.

When Sunday morning came around, we had intended to go to church up there, but since none of us had showered in two days (still no water), we figured we shouldn't probably go. The kids spent most of the day out in the snow or inside playing video games and watching TV. We had some fun family game time and basically just a chill day with everyone doing whatever made them happy.

Since it was nice out and there was power for the girls to do their hair, they wanted to go do a photo shoot in the snow. There were some really cute ones of them , but too many to post.

Since they don't plow the street that leads to the cabin, the kids were able to sled down it. So great for me and Katy to stay inside while the rest played outside. Best snow trip ever!

Katy only made one trip down, got snow sprayed in her face and decided she was done.

Bo jumped up after running into the tree and yells "that was awesome!"

Since there was no water, we couldn't flush the toilets. I'm sure you can imagine how not good that would be with 11 people using them. We started out melting snow to use to flush them, but it took a really long time. So, Glade started hiking down to the crik every so often to fill the water container. He was a real trooper.

We could have let all the "bumps" ruin our trip but instead we made into a memorable adventure we will all remember forever. It's all about the attitude!