Our Tree-Cutting Adventure

It has been seven years since that November day that changed so much in our family. This time of year brings lots of memories, both good and bad, but we have found that the best way to make it through this time of year is: TOGETHER!




The way we have chosen to spend that anniversary every year is to head out to Vernon and go Christmas tree hunting!! Every year we experience a different adventure, each one memorable in it's own way.

On the way there, in our little caravan of vehicles we talk about the past years' adventures: the year of the cougar tracks, the year that we almost slid off the mountain, the warm year, the year of the blizzard, and we wonder what will make this year memorable ....

This year will be remembered for several reasons, but I will remember this year as the year Grandma came!! Grandma hates to be cold!!! She loves to make soup! The combination of these two facts usually means that Grandma stays home making several kinds of yummy (and I mean knock-down delicious) warm soup to greet the cold tree-cutters upon arriving home. But this year an afternoon recital changed things up a bit and she joined us in the cold...and the mud!

This year will also be the year of the mud. An earlier snowstorm followed by some warmer weather left our tree-cutting area a big, muddy mess. This was the kind of mud that sticks inches thick to the soles of boots. Luckily there was still some snow for us to walk through to help de-mud our weighted-down boots!

It was also the year of Hudson, Brad, and Alison!! They bundled up and joined in the muddy fun.

It will also be remembered as the year of Samson and Delilah! Grandma and Grandpa's two little shih tzu's came along for the first time. Our daughter enjoyed their company.

There were many aspects of our trip this year that were identical to past years: foremost being the consumption of several dozen doughnuts and many cups of hot chocolate;

Some father/son advice-giving! Even if it is posed and scripted!!

Some sibling bonding always adds to the afternoon fun!

A little father/daughter teasing thrown into the mix...

and some cute cousins who started out so clean and innocent looking...you should have seen them! They started off their fun with a snowball fight and then moved onto a funner game of a mud fight! They enjoyed every second of the muddy fun, but clean-up was a challenge!

We enjoyed Grandpa's four-wheelers! There is something about wheelin' in the mud!

This will also be the year of the tree incident. While scary and unfortunate, I had to mention it because we feel so blessed that those involved were protected and that the serious damage was limited to the wheeler/tree and the riders were spared any serious injury!

We enjoyed many laughs,

and we even found a pretty decent Christmas tree!

In no time at all we had it cut down and ready to take home.

We had a fabulous day and many adventures. Our Christmas tree is sitting in our garage right now ( I like to give the unwanted wildlife a sudden eviction notice and a day to vacate our tree), but we plan on decorating it tomorrow night for family night. We can hardly wait!