A day on Mt. Hood.....

Between Christmas songs and ABC's "25 days of Christmas" specials, Emi was convinced that we could NOT celebrate Christmas without snow. We told her that in Portland, Oregon it rains on Christmas but that we'd take her to the Mountain for a day while Eric was on vacation. So, we left Elise with Auntie Keli and headed up to the Mountain, just the three of us. As Emi said, "Just like in the good old days". Ha!! I have so many great memories of Snowbunny park as a kid that I wanted to share that with her. They have tons of hills to sled on and a little shack to rent intertubes from. Thank goodness that the tubes were only $10/day and that we only rented one, because the kid did not dig the tubing. She was afraid that we were going to just sled right into the forest. We resorted to a couple hours of snowball fights, making snow angels and just rolling around. We had a great time and after warming up in the car during our lunch, she decided she didn't want to get all cold again, so we headed home. Stopping for Hot Cocoa and Mocha's. It was a great "Mommy, Daddy and Me" day.
I think that for New Years we'll be heading back up with some friends of ours who have rented a cabin. This time, we'll be taking Elise. I'm sure she is not going to be to excited about the snow. She can sit in the cabin and absorb the beauty of it all. It will be a fun way to spend New Years. Not having to drive home, or leave the girls anywhere. Just relaxing up at the mountain!!