Finding Ourselves Some Snow

 I have been wanting to take the girls tubing for a while. We have had such a dry winter this year. Flagstaff hadn't had any good snow storms and the first big snow storm that Southern Utah actually got wasn't until the end of January! Mid-February we had a free Saturday, so I called up to a gas station in Duck creek and asked how much snow they had they informed me seven inches! Yay!

 That week I had bought some snow tubes and some clearance snow pants from Wal-mart. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any snow boots so we had to improvise. I triple layered Jocelyn's socks and had Bridget wear her foot pajamas with rain boots over the top. Surprising, it worked really well except for Bridget's! Her boots were a little too big and she kept kicking them off. Ben and I lost count how many times we put them back on.

It so beautiful and was the absolute perfect day to go! It was nice, sunny 50 degree day.

When we arrived Ben and I got the girls dressed and set them down in the snow to blow up the tubes. Bridget did not initially love the snow when I stuck her in it for the first time and immediately wanted me to pick her up. She may have liked it a little better if she would have kept her mittens on. She did eventually learn though that her hands were warmer with the mittens and unlike the boots she learned to keep them on.

Jocelyn on the other hand immediately starting making snow balls and snow angels.

Once the tubes were all blown up the tubing began!

 The girls loved it! They would giggle all the way down. At the bottom Bridget would sign for more and then point back to the top of the hill.

 We tubed for a good two hours! The girls would have kept going, but Ben and I were all tuckered out. We did not realize how tiring tubing was going to be with two little girls. Carrying two girls up a snow covered hill over and over with exhausting! Next time we will have ropes tied to our tubes so we can drag them up the hill while they sit on the tube.

It was especially difficult carrying this squirmy baby up the hill. We could could barely hold onto her. We even attempted carrying our shoulders and she would literally try to jump off.

 Jocelyn wanted to try to build a snowman at the end. We attempted, it was poor packing snow and would just crumble. So, instead we built a little mound and stuff some sticks in it and gave him a rock nose. She was happy with her "snow man."

 After building the snowman, Jocelyn's hands were freezing and they were both starving. We got the girls dressed into warm clothes and loaded them in the car. While I was buckling Jocelyn into her car seat she became hysterical because she wanted a blanket and I told her I did not pack one. She burst into angry tears, "What, you did not bring a blanket?!" I immediately remembered I had an emergency one in the trunk and gave it to her followed by a cookie to snack on. 

With the nice warm car heater going we headed on home. The girls fell asleep about twenty minutes into the trip and slept all the way home. You would have thought by how tired they were they had been hiking up the mountain! We sure had a fun time taking the girls to tube and play in the snow for their first time! It is nice living in Arizona but I sure miss playing in the snow! We may just have to make this an annual family tradition!