Winter Fun Part 1

The week before Christmas we made a very short trip to North Carolina. The kids have been asking for the last 2 years if the could pleeeaaase see snow. That's not something we can just whip out of our back pockets, so I don't think they realized just how fortunate they were for us to first of all be able to even go there (thanks to some very sweet family!) and then how perfect it was for all the snow to even be there! Asheville got 22 inches of snow in the 24 hours before we arrived. I think there was even more snow the morning of our arrival. We were afraid it would be iced over by the time we were able to enjoy it the next morning, but that was not the case! The parents of my sis-in-law, Ginger, have these nice cabin not too far from Asheville where they let us come stay. You have to drive down this steep driveway that goes right up to the house - the first night, we pulled up to the top of the driveway and peered down at the house. Chris and I both looked at each other, and I knew we were thinking the same thing.... "Lord, please don't let us slide right into the house!" There is also a nice creek right behind it, so Chris kept singing the Veggie Tales song (from the movie Jonah) "Drive into the river, Bob" everytime we backed out of the carport to leave the house. Thankfully there were no problems for these Floridians who are not used to driving in the snow!

On to the fun... As our Christmas present, Ryan and Ginger gave us money for the kids and Chris to go snow tubing. Obviously, no snow tubing for the pregnant mommy, but I don't think I would have had a chance to do too much anyway, with trying to take pictures and help Luke in his little play area (there was a small area for the younger kids to play in).

Here's the big hill of snow - they rode a "carpet lift" up to the top and then slid down the tube to the bottom.

Cole coming down...

And Ansley...

For the first part, I pulled Luke up his small hill and then pulled him back down. Chris finally came over a little bit later and then really started giving him a big push down the hill. He had fun with me, but he had a BLAST with Daddy!

Here's a short vide of Luke coming down. He laughs the whole time and then starts saying "Daddy, push me again!" at the end.