A Very White Christmas

Warning: Long post ahead

This year we decided to spend Christmas with Nate's parents in snowy, cold West Yellowstone. This was the first time we'd spent Christmas with them since the first Christmas we were married, so it was nice to spend the holiday with them. It was a first for both of us to be there during the winter, and I was a little concerned about having good weather to make it there and back without too much difficulty. Thankfully, we had great roads on the way there and mostly good roads on the way back.

Enjoying the road trip 

The kids did pretty well in the car (except that Felicity won't really nap in her car seat). The good news is that with good roads, it actually takes less time to travel there in the winter than in the summer because there's very little traffic. We made it there in just 4.5 hours including a quick stop for gas.

A couple of moose we had to stop and see just off the road in Mack's Inn, Idaho

And when we arrived, this was the beautiful winter wonderland we got to be surrounded by for a week:

The gorgeous views from Nate's parents' house

Felicity had a rough time sleeping while we were there which made for several poor night's sleep for all of us. Granted, she had just gotten over a week long GI illness right before we left, but if she continues to sleep this poorly when we travel, we may just have to stay home and never go on vacation again.

Anyway, onto Christmas. Santa was able to find us without any problem, and the girls both enjoyed opening presents and playing with all of their gifts.

Felicity enjoying some of her Christmas presents

Bridget with her pile of presents on the chair behind her

Even though the temperatures stayed in the teens during most of the days we were there, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to play in all of that snow. Sledding was everyone's favorite, although Bridget really liked going for rides in the RZR including on top of the frozen lake (just the edge where is was solid enough). I even made my first snow angel in over 20 years, and my in-laws got a good laugh at me trying to get myself back up afterwards. In my defense, it was really deep snow and the snow gear I was wearing was really heavy.

Left: Nate helping Felicity go sledding. She loved it!
Top right: Bridget and Grandpa riding in the RZR
Bottom right: Bridget and me making snow angels in the 1.5 ft. of snow

Felicity preferred sitting in the RZR rather than riding in it because she didn't like the snow and cold wind in her face.

Grandma and Grandpa even had a kid-sized snowmobile for Bridget to ride on. The first time she got on it, she pushed right down on the accelerator 2 seconds after she sat down and before Grandpa could give her instructions. Luckily, she stopped when she hit a big snow pile a few feet away. The video below was her next attempt after Grandpa had a chance to instruct her:

I was hoping to go into Yellowstone Park on a snow coach while were there, but it turns out they are super expensive and the guy didn't offer us a deal. So even though it would have been nice to see the Park in the winter, we made our own fun in and around the house.