O' Christmas Tree!

This is a little late but it is a favorite Christmas tradition of mine so I had to post it. At the beginning of December every year my family makes the annual trip down to Sanpete county where our family owns some land. Every year we get all the kids dressed in their winter clothes and hike up the mountain to find the perfect Christmas tree. Now we have done this since before I can remember so the perfect trees are getting low in numbers. This year I was very excited for a couple of reasons: first this would be Isabelle's first Christmas tree hunt and second the last two year when we lived in Las Vegas we didn't have a tree at all. Well this last weekend came and along came the first big snow storm of the winter. My family was all a little hesitant but I didn't care, I wanted a tree! Saturday morning came and there was a lot of snow on the ground and the roads were bad and it was still coming down. We made a family decision to wait until noon and then see what it looked like. All morning things weren't looking good and I was really not very happy. At noon my mom called and said be ready in 20 minutes we are heading down. We grabbed our stuff and headed out. For the hour and half drive down we were wondering if we had made the wrong decision as it was a blizzard out and the roads were not good. We finally all made it to the dirt road and good thing we have a four wheel drive truck which made it up the cabin. We got all the kids in their snow clothes and headed up the mountain. We walked and walked and hiked and hiked and had our eyes open for the five perfect trees. Todd found one for us right away and cut it down. Then I was super woman and carried/dragged it down the mountain all by myself (I was quite proud.) Then I headed back up to find the rest. After what seemed like along time and a lot of hiking in foot deep snow we had the trees. My feet were cold, my lungs were burning, my throat hurt from yelling from one ridge to the next and my arms hurt from me and my sister trying to saw down her tree with just the two of us....but we had the trees! We made it back to the cabin fed the kids some hot dogs and then jumped back in the truck to head out before it got too late and we got snowed in. Overall I think we were a little crazy but we made it out with five great looking trees. I was so excited as one of my favorite things is to smell a fresh cut Christmas tree when you walk in the house. So our tree is finally up and it might not be the perfect shape, or the tallest or the fullest but it is what I wanted!

Isabelle stayed in the cabin with grandma while we ventured out in the blizzard so this is when we got home! Next year she will get to hike with us!