MLK weekend

this weekend, and every past MLK weekend for the last 23 years of my life has been spent here {idaho}

doing this {snowmobiling}

and boy, was it cold!

but as always- it was a blast!

we lounged in comfy clothes, ate too much delicious home cooked meals, watched the miss america pageant, played wacky six, ticket to ride, and everyones' new favorite: scramble with friends, found an elk leg, read books, got stuck in the snow a lot, watched good flicks {maybe too much indiana jones}, snowshoed, drank hot cocoa, and had good chats. 

it was a much needed relaxing cabin weekend! but we'll take any break from 7:30 am math class eh!

love ya!

SNOWMOBILING

Every year since I have been 'old enough NOT to leave home with a babysitter while everyone else goes on vacation' I have gone snowmobiling. We go to Idaho on an intense, life threatening adventure. I think that sometimes when I say I'm adventurous I am being big headed because every year when this trip rolls around my stomach gets all turny...

And may I remind you that I grew up with a lot of boys- this is definitely a more masculine sport/hobby right? So I'd like to say that my Mom and I are REALLY good sports. And we kinda play "follow the leader" and wherever my Dad goes we shall surely follow. And he goes up some pretty steep hills, gets lost, super close to rivers and lakes, speeding ticket speeds, and in ANY weather condition. I can assure you that I have snowmobilled in every type of weather; rain, snow, shine, wind, below zero, etc.

This trip was Jeff's third with my family. The first year, we hadn't been dating very long so you can only imagine how intense that trip must have been for him. He said that he felt like Greg Focker. Such a trooper.

My helmet never comes off. Everyone is always taking their off and itching their faces and heads and I don't mess around with the cold- it is LOCKED onto my head until safely returned back to the indoors of the cabin.

And here is our fearless leader, my Dad. He is kinda awesome and a super hard core snowmobiler.



When we get home we line out boots, gloves, and helmets up by the fireplace to dry.



But we never really get cold, when you go as much as our family has you kind of become a small version of professional and have some crazy high-tech gear including gore-tex (super waterproof) pants and coats, neck gators, gloves, feet warmers and hand warmers, helmets that weigh as much as small children, snowmobiling socks (which are different than ski socks or just "warm socks"), sorel's. And of course all of this clothing piled up looks incredibly attractive aka super large.

This year there was A LOT of snow, as you can tell. And supposedly this place is PACKED in the summer, and it is hard for me to even imagine this place without a blanket of snow. Some of the windows in the cabin you cannot see out of because the snow is too high.




And if you haven't heard we are moving to Montana this summer and came across this sign as we were crossing borders. So we were happy for the warm welcome. My brothers also felt the need to inform me that Montana doesn't get warm and I won't get tan all summer- I was sad.

*And yes we snowmobile long enough and far enough to cross states.

***Guys, I also struggle with the word snowmobile... when I am writing snowmobiler (is that a word?), snowmobiling (are there two "L"s?), Snowmobile (is there a "W"?)

The trip was super fun! We ate delish food, deserved hot chocolate, played games, watched movies. Good time!

We played a game we were recently introduced to by my sister-in-law, Ticket to Ride. It's a strategy game, and there are also a boatload of rules- so make sur eyou have them DOWN. It is very fun, and Jeff and I were the only ones who have played it before and neither of us won- embarrassing.

We also watched the Social Network, somehow Jeff and I were the only people who had seen it. we need to try and be behind on ou movies, sometimes it pays off. But it was still way good the second time around. And I have noticed that after watching that movie, everytime I get on facebook I think about Mark Zuckerberg and am amazed at how thriving facebook is ALL OF THE TIME. I know so much more about everything because of it. But I also kind of am mad at him cause he was mean to his friend. It makes me a little mad at him.

We also made sure to do our highs and low's of the trip. With our car atleast.

Eliza's high: low: the pillows were terrible and gave me serious neck pain!

Jeff's high: the last day of snowmobiling. low: our fogging up helmets.

Will's high: i can't remember. low: getting body slammed by J.R. in the snow, it was brutal.

J.R.'s high: body slamming Will. low: the bunk bed sleeps

* thanks for the picture J.R.