On Christmas, we woke up to a winter wonderland and Samantha, Amelia and Meredith spent the rest of the week begging to sled and play in the snow… for about twenty minutes at a time. I have no idea how families who live in colder climates deal with this, because the effort it took just to get all the snow gear on wore me out for the rest of the day, not to mention the cost of all the gear that will only fit them this year and maybe next. I couldn’t imagine this being a daily reality of just getting to school! We were happy to get our “snow fix” and then return to home to the warmth where we only deal with rain jackets once in a while!

There were absolutely zero options for snow gear around where we live, so my mom shopped around locally for some cost-effective options and the house looked like a department store filled with snow gear by the time we got there. This bunting for Meredith was the only practical option that fit her, and worked well, even though we were not excited about the navy color! Poor Meredith transformed into a boy for our sledding adventures, but still managed to look cute.

Grammy with a bundled up Amelia, 2013:

After narrowing down some finalists for clothing, and after 45 minutes of tugging and squeezing clothes and boots on, we were ready to go.

That picture of the girls going down the stairs reminded me of one taken a few years ago, with Uncle Mike holding on for dear life with Amelia down the stairs!

Samantha and Amelia fought over who got to hold Meredith for their epic ride down the hill. Meredith looked slightly terrified, but didn’t complain.

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?

HELP.

2013– the twins’ first encounter with snow:

Meredith is normally wiggly and high-energy, but the snow seemed to have a calming effect on her high octane personality. She was totally mesmerized and just lay flat on her back in the sled, almost comatose!

Timber!

The girls had to try out the frozen playground.

Sammy with icicles hanging down her hat.

After making fun of Jake for collapsing after his fiftieth round as head sled dog, he gave me the reigns so I could see for myself what it was like pulling 95 pounds on a flimsy sled. EASY.

It was actually pretty grueling. I didn’t even make it up the hill once.

Peekaboo, Meredith.

The girls were fascinated with the concept of snow angels. Later in the week, they went on a walk with Grammy and she said they had to stop in every single neighbor’s yard to make a snow angel.

The last time the girls played in snow was in 2014 when they were not quite three years old, so they didn’t really remember what it felt like. The freshly fallen snow was too powdery for making snowmen this go around.

Loved Samantha’s circa 1985 snowsuit!

The girls couldn’t get enough of tasting snow. We educated them about yellow and brown snow just in time.

Jake attempted to teach the twins about how to have a snowball fight, but they were completely uninterested and instead took the snowballs he made them and carried them around in their sled, pretending they were “their kids.” I overheard them asking each other how many kids the other had and then each would practice counting their little bundles of joy. Such girls!

Despite Daddy pelting them with snowballs, the girls didn’t fight back.

More sledding with Samantha guiding the sled.

Amelia takes the reigns…

Sledding into the sunset.

The poor snowballs sat unused until the twins decided to eat them instead of throw them.

More snow fun included Jake and I going on an anniversary date to Sundance for some skiing (we also spent half the time relaxing in the lodge for lunch and hot chocolate). We have both snowboarded for the past fifteen years and I hadn’t even been on skis since I was a kid; although it felt very different from snowboarding, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. When we put the girls on skis, I’m sure they will be better than me in about five minutes because they have no fear, whereas I kept freaking out and tried to reduce my speed at all costs.

We can’t wait to be entertained watching the girls learn to ski next time… is it mean to start laughing while imagining them doing the splits on skis?

Lots of love,