Snow, sledding, shoveling & STITCHES?

Over Presidents' Day weekend, we made our annual trek north to our good friends, the Downs' cabin over Snoqualmie Pass. There was record breaking (at least it seemed record breaking--I don't know the exact records) snow, which made it necessary for us to hike the approx. 2 miles in with all the kids before Dale and Craig could dig the snowmobile out of the garage and go out and get the rest of the supplies. The snowmobile came in quite handy too when Sat. night we had to ride out to the car and drive Hannah to the nearby Snoqualmie Valley hospital for stitches--the first ever for anyone in our family. She needed stitches after an unfortunate snow shovel incident. She and Justin and Jayden (our friends' son) were shoveling a snow fort and Hannah took the corner of a shovel from behind right above her eyebrow. The wound wasn't very long, but it was deep, so we thought it needed to be looked at. Now those of you who know Hannah, know that she is extremely senstive to anyone getting hurt and does not handle it too well. The idea of taking someone to the ER for stitches is not usually pleasant, but the thought of having to deal with her doing that is especially unpleasant. She was scared and shed many tears, but the nurse and dr. were great and when she got the actual stitches (2 of them), she said she couldn't even feel it. When we left, she was laughing and smiling and a regular chatterbox about all the excitement. I think it has helped show her that people do get hurt, but that they are okay.

After getting through that, we had a good day on Sunday sledding and playing out in the snow--well the kids did most of the sledding and playing. The adults attempted to relax and take naps. There was tons of snow but it was very hard and icy, so it was very good for sledding but not good for much else, although the kids did enjoy digging out their snow fort and making a stockpile of snow (ice) balls. Unfortunately, on Monday, just before leaving, Dale threw one of those balls because the kids insisted on a snowball fight and it ricocheted and hit Hannah right on the nose giving her a bloody nose and good ice scrape. It was a rough weekend for her, but overall, I think she would still say she had fun.

Owen wasn't real thrilled with the snow. He cried most of the time we were outside, but he enjoyed running around in the cabin, especially climbing on a bear that it usually the underside of a coffee table, but we removed the glass.

Justin came away without injury except for a minor scrape on the nose from sledding. He mostly enjoyed playing video games and legos in the sink inside with Jayden. He is already asking when we can go back.

Here are some pics from the weekend.









Hannah got to feed the birds that will come right up to you. One even took bread off her hat.



Mom, Owen and Justin are watching the bird feeding from the window. Owen loves watching birds and even says birdie.



Here are those stitches and the scrape on her nose.