Holiday with the Ashes!

Boy, was the end of 2017 busy!

We had our Christmas here on Christmas Day, then on the 26th we gathered the crew and went to Bend, Oregon to meet up with our daughter Andrea and family for fun in the snow. As Brian’s two had never seen snow, the first snowball went in the air as soon as we got there.

Traveling during the holidays is a bit of a challenge and the two-and-a-half-hour layover we were to have in San Francisco turned into a half-hour layover since our flight from Houston had a mechanical problem. You know you are in trouble when the flight gets to the gate and all these people come running out and testing the tires.

They finally said that plane was not going anywhere, so off we went to another gate to wait for a plane to get there. Then we got to the third gate. Finally, they got a plane there and we were on our way!

Andrea, Tim, and Avery were at the airport, but Gil’s suitcase didn’t make it, so we went and put a claim on it. Hopefully, it would arrive later that night and be delivered the next day.

So off to the house we went. Even though it was 8 PM and we had all been up since early that morning, the kids played outside in the snow for hours.

The next morning, we went to the sledding hill. And boy, that was chaotic. Once you start down the hill, there is no stopping the sled and there is no controlling it either. So you had to watch them come down and get out of their way when they came down that hill.  Crazy!

Day three brought tubing down a large hill in a big tube. Our son-in-law got behind us and gave us a good push and down the hill. We then went up the other side over hay to get us to slow down. Then you get out of the tube and go back up the hill to do it again.

We did this for two hours, and what a blast it was. The hardest part was getting out of the tube. You had to roll out of it, which was not very graceful. But it worked. As time went on, it got easier to stand up. Then we had to walk to the car in an icy parking lot. We all made it without falling – thank goodness. Broken bones were not in the plan.

On day four the boys were supposed to ride on snowmobiles, but the snow had melted enough that it had to be canceled. Instead, we went on a horse sleigh ride through the woods.

As we were leaving, we found a pond that had two very large swans on it. There were also hundreds of geese and three very playful sea lions, so we stayed and watched them play.

The temperature was warming on day five. There was no sledding because the sledding hill was ice. So we were off to see the sights.

We found a beautiful waterfall and Brian remarked that he had never seen a natural waterfall. So, we were glad we could take that off the list.

Since our flight the next day was early, we went back to the hotel to get some sleep and left the next morning.

What a great time was had by all. But it’s always nice to get home.