Bryan's 40th

President's Day Weekend

For the first time in recent memory, we did not spend President's Weekend at the Enzian. It was a tough decision, but all families felt it was correct. So, we found an alternative!

We rented a cabin at Tall Timber and went up Friday afternoon. We got the Ephrata cabin and got all moved in.

It was cozy and warm!

Naturally, the kids went for a ski outing in the dark!

It began snowing when we arrived and really didn't stop. Saturday morning we work up and used the snowshoes to hike to the White River.

They were awesome!

Shan and her shorter legs even managed to keep up with the crew through the deep powder.

They claimed to be the Shackletons, but we knew them as the Fudds...

Snow bunnies!

Back inside, we played lots of games

and even amused ourselves with a hymn singalong!

Later in the afternoon we trudged around in search of a sledding hill, but came up short. Still, we found lots of snow to play in

and many beautiful scenes!

Happily no one fell in any water. Mitch preferred XC skiing, but was a good sport on the snowshoes, too.

Saturday evening we started our snow fire. Note that the barrel was above ground. It sank massively before we left! The fire gave us fits because it didn't want to burn, but we persisted! We roasted Mike dogs and s'mores before retreating to the cabin for games. In all, it snowed more than one foot on Saturday!

Sunday was Valentine's Day and we got a glimpse of the mountains before the snow socked us in again. 

Breakfasts, and all meals, were camping fare.

Icicles were playthings on Sunday. Here Shan was the Ice Queen of Narnia. When her crown fell, she said, "Good. Now Aslan is in charge!"

Mitch was a snow yak!

They built a castle wall around the porch.

There was much gathering of wood and splitting of kindling so we could have more fire.

Bryan and I left them for a bit that afternoon and trekked into the woods for a snowshoe adventure.

We love these things! It's like 4-bying on foot and we were able to see so much beauty.

The depth of snow along the river was impressive.

My valentine!

We definitely didn't want to leave on Monday. This is Mitch inside the fire pit after he filled it up with some snow. It melted down a good 5 feet from our two fires!

Tall Timber Ranch for the win! We estimate between 15-24 inches of snow fell while we were there. It was incredible!

We want to return to the Enzian, but certainly loved this outing and would like to do it again, too!