Last month we were lucky enough to score the pleasure of Bri and Mason's company on a snowshoeing adventure. It was epic! And also wet. And also so fun. And cold. We hit the mountain by our house, spent about 2 minutes on the trail, and then blazed our own from there. The views were gorgeous and I tell you what, there's no beauty like snow beauty. When we decided to meet back up with the trail, we did some legit bushwhacking. A machete would've been welcome, although I probably would've impaled myself with it during one of my roughly 674 wipe-outs. I could watch this phenomenon all. day. long. Finally emerging triumphant from the snarly oak trees. The mountain and the valley. Fun fact: This is my happy place that I went to in my head during my labor with Emmeline. Except it was May or June in my brain, with lots of wild roses up the sides. I'd never experienced it in the snow until this trip. Love it!

 We had a snowy winter this year and tried our best to embrace it. Playing out in the snow requires a huge expenditure of effort. Simply putting on everyone's snow clothes is quite a feat, not to mention dealing with them once they're dripping wet and trailed all over the house. But if you can forget about the before and after, the during of snow play has a certain magic about it that shouldn't be missed. Our biggest snowman of the year, Waldo. Man were those snowballs heavy! A snow fort. Nate and I went snowshoeing with our friend Mike. The snow was unbelievably deep and really, for me, it was more of an exercise in extracting myself from huge snow drifts once I fell over in them. But the scenery and company couldn't be beat. It started out in a wooded area, then suddenly got pretty exposed and icy and we were getting pounded by snow. At about that point, Mike got swept at least 35 feet down the mountain in a mini-avalanche. It was terrifying. So we turne...

The Monday after Christmas, some friends of ours, Mike and Stephanie, invited Nate and me to go snowshoeing with them. We were thrilled (and only slightly intimidated that they're the fittest people I've ever met and we'd been eating Christmas junk nonstop for at least two weeks straight). I had only been snowshoeing once and Nate had never been, so we were stoked. Monday morning came and we left all the kids at our house with a couple babysitters and were off. We rented some snowshoes and headed to the trailhead at the North Ogden Divide, where we attempted to push our car up into the icy parking lot and then finally just gave up and parked by the road. We met up with Stephanie's cousin Shane and headed up toward Lewis Peak. Mike and Steph packed extra snow gear, lucky for those of us who had never heard of most of it (gaiters - who knew?), and graciously hooked Nate and me up. We went about a mile up to a spot that overlooked North Ogden on one side and Eden on the ot...