Annual crazy tradition

We welcomed Emily home from school with a hike up McLaughlin.  It's over 10 miles round trip with 4000' of elevation gain.  But we don't always wait for the best conditions.  We high-centered the car on a snow drift on the way in, which took some digging to get out.  Fortunately, we were only a 1/4 mile from the trail-head.  The weather was good, but it made for soft snow, and much of the time I sunk in deeper when I went to step off.  Pam lost a shoe in one post hole, and had to dig it out.  Most of the way up the kids broke trail and packed the snow somewhat, but 50 extra lbs of Gideon on my back effected more than my balance.

Skiddles and sandwiches helped, but the biggest boost to morale was the girls leading us in songs.  I'm not necessarily recommending you try mountain climbing at home, but for us, doing something dangerous hard together draws us together.  Near the top, as our energy was failing, I gathered the kids for an important family decision, and this year after some discussion they settled on pizza.  Little Caesar's was closed by the time we got to it,  so I baked some frozen pizza.  But by the time it came out of the oven everyone had crashed for the night, so we had it for lunch today.

I took the kids on a little side-spur to Frey lake, and Zachary showed that he's not always one to take good counsel and wants to test the edge of the ice himself.  Fortunately it wasn't deep water and we quickly got him to safety.


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