UTAH part1.

how, oh how, oh how could i possibly explain the magnitude of this trip? it was glorious, extravagant, refreshing, motivating, empowering, and peaceful. it was exciting, scary, hilarious, and pleasantly dreamy. it was beyond anything we anticipated or even imagined. to say we are grateful is an understatement. to say that we aren't still living in the aftermath of all things good that came from our experience, would simply be a lie.
we arrived on a Thursday afternoon in time to soak in our dear friends. it was awesome. we were so stinkin' happy to just be. after the children nodded off to lala land, the adults began a packin'. we pulled out our resources of layers of snow clothes and snow boots, caps, gloves, and this and that and loaded up the vehicle. our next 2 days were going to bring us much adventure and cozy fire lovin' at the family cabin sitting up in the mountains. engulfed in snow. a lot of it.
and so it was. we woke to our morning drive up into the mountains. we "arrived" on the side of the road. uhh?? okay, so we were as far as the vehicle could take us anyway...and it was time to load up the snowmobiles to transport the crew and luggage to the cabin. it's the only way to get there! so fun. really, so so so so fun.
we arrived, we unloaded, and we immediately took to the pathways on the snowmobiles for a tour of the area. first with the little kids, and second with the bigger ones. beautiful! so so beautiful. there were only a couple of inches of a stop sign that could be seen...that's how high/deep the snow was! it was an amazing sight!! the trees, the cabins, the EVERYTHING. it was bliss.
our bliss did have a little bump that first day, when the cute boy and I tipped the snowmobile on our tour outing. scharm had just told me the story of a family member (or maybe it was a friend) who had just almost severed their entire leg on a snowmobile! i had the boy jump off before it went all the way over, and he rolled in his own action movie moment, while i swung my body over the side to catch it from going all the way. it was an intense little moment, but first scharm, then matt came to our rescue and all was well! (although admittedly i wasn't as confident on those things after that)
we spent our day in and out of the snow, visiting indoors, and playing games into the night. and we fell asleep in a loft full of beds bunked up in slumber party fashion.
inside the cabin:

outside the cabin:


snowball fighting and such:

(do you see how high the snow is on the front porch?!)

DAY2 at the cabin brought us much adventure. more playing and visiting, and some grand sledding slopes and snowmobiling fun. i don't think we quit smiling once!

well, maybe once...
once when we thought we were going to snowmobile back to the cabin (after a long ride) down a steep-ish mountain slope...and really went off a cliff-ish sort of thing!!!!!!!!!!!! (the boy is calling it a corneous, but then I'm not too savvy on the logistics of it...just what it felt like going off of it :)) i can say this was one of my most scary life moments. the kind of moment where we prepare to go down the hill, and realize we are falling through the air (matt and i, and snowmobile), and suddenly we abruptly slam into the ground/mountain below, our bodies (pretty much only matt's poor body) were thrust into the snowmobile (i think i was just thrust into him), and then we rolled down the mountain. and as if feeling that wasn't scary enough, there was the reality of what we just did...matt jumps up screaming for scharman to not go (cause she and her dad were riding together right behind us..luckily they had a little prompting and waited). and while that's happening, i see what we actually went off of. i see matt's smidge of blood. and i see his snow plastered face and head. and i see the look of terror on his face. and i see him bent over by the snowmobile. and i see him checking his teeth (i later learned that's what he was doing). and i see him not quite himself, yet getting himself together (a lot more humble and a lot less adventurous). and i feel my own self shaking, but not a lick of pain. and we're inspecting ourselves and each other and seeing that we really are okay. like, not just the adrenaline hiding serious injuries, but really okay. sigh. (although poor matt discovered a mess of bruises, bumps, and aches and pains as the day went on...only sore muscles for me. perhaps i should thank matt for protecting my fall while i ensured his injuries by landing on him?? but what else was i to do when we were dropping off edge???).
and then we got the rush of holy cow, did we really just do that?! and smiled again, and took pictures and such. :)
below: where the snowmobile eventually stopped; we're standing where we landed; and well, deciding we needed photo/video record of our insanity.



and that pretty much ended the adventurous side of our trip. :)
all i can say is oh. my. word. and that we made a memory. and that i was more than terrified of even the simplest ride after that. remember, we still had to ride to get home!
BUT home we did go. we loaded up, said a heartfelt goodbye to the cabin and all it's glory, and drove down the mountain to their adorable little town for many more days of our Utah trip.




this cute boy is made of my own heart. these 2 (maybe 3?) little blankets he's holding...when you hand them to him, he immediately smothers his face with them in pure happiness. i get that. :)

the boy did it with snow in Utah and on the Missouri trip the week before (full on snow smothering into his face).
and I could smother the peace that came from this trip, too.

***oh, and sorry for the chipmunk voice on the videos! I've got to learn to keep my mouth shut when I'm videoing!!