One of the hardest things about moving to the Middle of Nowhere or East of that (still no word on which place it will be for sure!) is that we’ll be leaving My Mountains that I love and adore. I have lived in this area for all but 6 years of my life and I consider these mountains as part of the very fiber of my being. The love I have for them is deeply ingrained into my soul, my heart and my mind. When we move, not only will be leaving our home, family and friends,
but we will be leaving a part of our heart in the forests, rivers/streams and meadows of this most beautiful place.
Thankfully, we will only be about 5 hours away at the most.
It’s further away than a day trip, but still easily accessible for a weekend.
Thankfully, my parents have a beautiful home in these mountains that they have opened up
to my family and allowed us to come stay.
My parents have been on an extended driving vacation ‘back east’ where my beautiful niece is graduating from high school. We were THRILLED – to say the least – when they called and said we could come and stay at the cabin
while they were gone.
After all, per family tradition, Memorial Weekend is ALWAYS spent in the mountains!
And per tradition, Memorial Weekend felt like Christmas weekend.
It’s a rare time when snow isn’t flying the on weekend that kicks off summer vacation.
But this weekend seemed especially cold.
I believe the thermometer read around 29° for most of the time we were there.
The wind blew.
The clouds covered the mountains and blocked the view.
And the snow…?
Well, it fell in droves.
We got a good 3 inches of the wet stuff.
All I can say is,
THANK HEAVENS FOR 4 WHEEL DRIVE!!
It would snow for a while, stop and the temp would raise to 32°,
then the clouds would descend again and back to 29° and snow falling again.
We tried to get out and have fun anyway.
This area is one of Scooter’s favorite.
We thought it would be fun to see the “building destruction” in the snow.
Scooter jumped out of the car, got 10 feet down the trail and ran back at top speed.
The wind was too terrible.
At least he let me take a picture of him.
There was an abundance of animals in the front yard.
We also saw a coyote out in the sage brush where that elk is.
That was a definite first!
We can hear them howling at night, but we’ve never seen one this close to the cabin before!
It just means that we need to keep a closer eye on Lola Dog.
We don’t want her to be a treat for her canine brother.
A lot of time was spent indoors playing games and…
{my favorite…}
Flynn serenaded me with his guitar playing skills.
He’s been teaching himself how to play and is learning John Denver songs….
JUST FOR ME!!!
Isn’t he awesome?!?
We were thrilled when our friends came up to visit as well!
The clouds parted long enough to take a drive down the West Fork of the River
and to play along the banks of the Lakes.
At night, we played a rowdy game of Spoons.
Belle and Beast even graced us with their presence for the day!
It was a real party then!
And my guys emptied almost an entire tin of pellets shooting off the deck.
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The funniest part of the weekend cost us $70.
Scooter got into Flynn’s truck for something and when he got out, he accidentally hit the
“lock” button on the door.
He didn’t know he did it, and closed the door.
All 3 sets of keys were INSIDE the truck.
UH OH!
Flynn and Old Stinky spent a couple hours trying to break into the truck.
Fighting hypothermia and frostbite, they improvised and engineered up many different
gadgets trying to get the door unlocked.
None of them worked.
The contraption was too flimsy or too wide to fit through the door.
Finally, admitting defeat, they came inside.
The next morning, Flynn called a locksmith from the town that’s 45 minutes away.
The gracious man came out and in 5 minutes had the door unlocked.
(We need to get his door unlocker tool!)
While the locksmith was there, Shackie asked Flynn where he usually kept his spare key.
Flynn thought he removed it after the accident with the elk,
but he wanted to show it to her anyway.
He walked to the back bumper, felt underneath and was surprised to feel
the familiar magnetized lock box.
He pulled it off the bumper, opened it up and found out he had
FOUR SETS OF KEYS
for the truck, not three!
Hmmm……
He was definitely embarrassed!
But the rest of us laughed.
Here, Flynn pulls some of the metal hangers and wood blocks out of the door.
You can see Flynn’s reaction when he finds that he did have a hidden key after all!
Way to go, darling!
