Weekend in Pictures

This has been a fairly (to quote Barney) "legendary" weekend. Put aside the fact that our Friday kicked off with a vomiting five year old, and the weekend went rather well (for a weekend with three kids and a horse sized puppy that is).

Late afternoon Friday it started to snow in Redding, and it kept snowing all through the night until we ended up with this-

We're lucky if it snows once a year in Redding, it's even more rare that the snow actually sticks to the ground. I couldn't have asked for more for our little city boys' first winter in Redding. Saturday we took a walk through the neighborhood, built a snowman, hung some more Christmas lights, and had a snowball fight.

Our tribute to San Francisco :)

I assure you, Jax is in this picture... I'm pretty sure he ducked behind the snowman for the shot. Lola was napping.

On Sunday we braved the cold and headed up to Mt. Lassen to hunt a Christmas tree. 

We have spent a lot of time missing the bay area lately, but I will say it will never hold a candle to this-

It's been years since we have cut down a tree in the woods. After all, there aren't really "woods" in the bay... it was definitely a first for the kids. As much as we tried to prepare them for the 18 degree weather, I don't think we succeeded. They soldiered through a lot of hiking, but after a few small falls in the snow, they were over it. It all culminated with Maddox needing to pee, and not being able to get his pants down fast enough with his gloves on. Picture me, sprinting through the snow, ripping my gloves off, only to pull his pants down mid pee. So now not only was he cold, but he was covered in his own urine, and a good 1/4 mile from the car. Ahh parenthood. The kids ended up spending the rest of the trip in the car, pants-less (heater on of course), while Nolan and I alternated trekking through the woods looking for a tree. 

Here is the difference between childless couples, and couples with young kids:

Childless couple- "Let's go cut a Christmas tree today."

"Okay, when do you want to leave?"

"How about now?"

"Okay!"

And they leave.

Couple with young children- "Let's go cut down a Christmas tree today!"

"Okay, when do you want to leave."

"It's 9:30, if we start getting everyone ready now we should be able to leave in an hour."

"Okay."

Three hours later they leave.

Childless Couple- "Let's hike around until we find the tree we like best, no need to rush!"

"Yes, let's just enjoy the day together."

Couple with Young Children- "we're on borrowed time here, let's just pick one and get out, we've been here for four hours! One kid peed on himself, one is soaked, and they're all hungry."

"Good idea, I'll get them in the car, you go find one. Just mark a trail to it in the snow and I'll come back with the saw while you feed the baby."

And so on and so forth. The tree we ended up with is beautiful unique. It is bald in the middle and splits into a sort of wishbone effect at the top. Quite lovely really... 

We made it out of the woods just as the sun was going down.  All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend, and I'm sure we made some amazing memories. 

"Hey Maddox, remember the time you peed all over yourself in the woods?" 

I think everyone was pretty thoroughly exhausted by the end of the trip.

As a side note, if you've never seen this video, it's pretty hilarious. I don't think I could do a better job of describing parenthood...