a sledding we will go

On Christmas Eve, we went up to Hyalite Reservoir to go sledding.  We had so much fun. Not that we are hermits, but one of the things we love about Montana is the population density and lack thereof.  Not a lot of competition for resources.  On many occasions, we've found ourselves thinking "If we were somewhere else, this place would be packed."

We had the entire hill to ourselves, not that we were in danger of running into other people in National Forest, but still. We kept going and going until we ran ourselves ragged. George had so much fun.

We kept Ed bundled tight, while Ashley wore my coat, hoisted by the baby bjorn.  Eventually he got tired of our shenanigans and spent the rest of the morning snoozing in the car.

Here's a good shot of Ashley and the boys getting ready for another run. Even though the sun wasn't out all the way, there was no wind and the temperature was perfect.  We all over-heated.  We were much better repaired for the snow this time, compared to last time when we got our tree.

I experimented with the automatic timer - taking multiple shots. I wanted to get us in action, so... scroll down through the next few pictures of us enjoying the slopes.

A successful day in the books. We had such a fun time that we're planning on going up again this Saturday.  Anyone is welcome to join us, just as long as you are serious about having fun.

a (tree) hunting we will go...

On Saturday we observed the old time tradition of chopping down a Christmas Tree.  You can't argue with the economics ($5), and the family fun. And yes, it has its environmental benefits as well. We went up to Hyalite Reservoir and had so much fun. 

It had snowed quite a bit up in the mountain.  The scenery was breathtaking.

Ice Fishing - Ashley's new passion. It combines several of her few favorite things.  Sitting. In the cold.  No but seriously here are some ice fishing enthusiasts on the reservoir as its frozen over. So beautiful.

We threw Ed in the pack and snuggled him up real cozy like.  Because the sun was out the temperature was very tolerable. We had great weather on a spectacular day.

I took George. The snow was close to knee deep in some places making it pretty tough for George to head in by himself.

I blazed a trail after scouting a few potential candidates.  Ashley lugged Ed in and stopped to model for me.  Ed snoozed the entire time. Makes me wonder what interesting places my parents took me when I was little, that I just snoozed all the way through.

We went deeper into the woods and found a few candidates.  George was an excellent helper and was having a ton of fun.

Like a responsible dad, I forgot George's gloves but because of the drawstring feature on mine, they work perfect for a toddler.  By some milagro I had packed two pair for myself so we got really lucky in that regard.

Trudging through knee deep snow, with a (close to) 40 lb toddler, and a christmas tree is a serious workout.  I highly recommend it.  Everyone had so. much. fun.

George and I pause to catch our breath and lug our beauty the rest of the way out. Are you jealous yet of our wholesome family fun? I cannot emphasize enough how beautiful it was, and how happy we all were. We didn't have to hunt for very long, and even though we had some initial buyers remorse at our tree (as we saw hordes of childless tree cutters and their Rockefeller Square quality trees), now that its up in our house we love it and I couldn't be prouder.

Poor Ed, forced into adventures he didn't sign up for. He didn't wake up until the tree was on top of the car.  Come to think of it, we should've got a picture of that.

I obviously should've dressed George better, put him in some pretty cruddy jeans that got soaked.  As the picture illustrates, we stripped him down after the tree hunting and was a lot more happy. He loves our tree and was smiling about it all day.

Just in case the pictures weren't enough, we recorded some video of the adventure.  Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.