The Epic Adventure: Part #2

The yurt was COLD when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.  Sophie, apparently not noticing how cold it really was, thinking that now she was INSIDE of something that SHOULD be warm, threw off all of her warm layers and sat there shivering and bewildered.  Casey quickly lit a fire in the wood burning stove, and while he stoked it, the kids huddled under "Bucky," one of the sheepskins that we'd brought along.  (Bucky was a sheep that Casey raised in high school.  There ARE benefits to marrying an FFA man.)  Every frigid expedition should have a few Buckys on hand.

Zeke, Soph, and Hal with Casey's beloved "Bucky"

Zeke cocooned into a down sleeping bag with his "Bear-Bear" while we waited for the yurt to get toasty

After the yurt was sufficiently warm and circulation returned to our extremities, Casey and the girls started in on the card games that our friend Ginny gave the kids for Christmas.  (A boxed set including Snap!, Go Fish, Memory, and Crazy 8.)  I warmed up some Chili for our dinner--really the ultimate option after a long cold ski.

After dinner, we started in on the much anticipated birthday festivities.  The pinata was first up on the agenda.  Our giraffe was pretty thick-skinned, thanks to our awesome paper mache skills, so this activity took quite a while.  We took turns whacking it until it split, eventually needing to add Casey and I to the rotations to do some real damage, then divided the spoils among the masses.  Since we knew that January would be "Austerity January," we'd carefully saved most of the Christmas candy from our stockings and the left-over stuff from our gingerbread house making to fill the pinata.  Austerity at its finest.

Sophie's birthday cake was actually some peppermint shortbread cookies that we pseudo-baked in a shallow pan on top of the wood burning stove.

Casey, working on Sophie's "cake"

Footage of Sophie's flaming birthday cookie:

After I played a few fiddle tunes, Casey read from "Little House in the Big Woods" (one of Sophie's birthday gifts) and we readied the yurt for the night.  We were all exhausted after the days events, so we quickly bedded down.  The kids all slept together on one bottom bunk cross-ways, the sheep skins acting as warm fluffy padding.  In the soft orange glow of the wood-burning stove, we fired up some tunes on Casey's iPhone, listened to the quiet crackle of burning pine, and fell asleep, peaceful and warm. 

Hal, Zeke, and Soph, getting ready for bed

The yurt at bedtime.

Casey and I both got up a couple of times to stoke the fire during the night, but our sleep was deep and peaceful in between.  During my middle of the night outhouse runs--mine and the girl's--I stopped to admire the clear sky full of about a billion brilliant STARS.  I forgot that they were up there.

Day #2 at the yurt consisted of lots of lounging (or "waxing," as Zeke likes to say), card games, and eating.

We enhanced the log bench with the Buckys, making it perfect for sitting in front of the fire.

Casey cooked up bacon and eggs (from our backyard chickens) on top of the wood-burning stove for breakfast.

We'd saved a bottle of Martinelli's for the trip, and we broke it out after breakfast.  Zeke, remembering our copious New Year's toasts a few weeks ago, was sitting quietly in front of the fire with his sisters, holding a brimming cup of the bubbly, when he suddenly lifted his beverage into the air and loudly proclaimed, "Happy toast!"  It made us all laugh out loud.

Zeke, our happy boy, was dubbed "the weakest link" on this trip because of the incidents [read: duct tape] the day before on the trail.  

Zeke's "Happy toast!!"

The yurt early Friday morning.

While Zeke lounged in front of the fire with his "Bear-Bear," Sophie and I went out and hauled several sled loads of wood into the yurt to replace the huge volume that we'd burned over our two-day stay.

Sophie was a trooper on the trip, as was Hal.   Just look at that girl haulin' wood!

Casey made popcorn after breakfast.  Yum!

The girls played lots of card games in front of the fire.  Notice those fresh yurt pants that Hal is sporting.

The time that we spent at Big Water Yurt was amazing.  It was so nice to have our little family together and warm in a beautiful place, just enjoying each other's company.  Simple.  Earthy.

So Friday afternoon, we came to terms with the fact that we'd soon need to vacate the yurt since we'd only reserved it for one night.  Somehow I got the idea in my head that we'd put the kids in sleeping bags for the ride down to keep them warm and smoothly ski out in record speed.  When we were packed and ready to go, we put Hallee and Zeke inside sleeping bags (Soph got to ride loose on the back of the sled), and set off, soon to discover that my plan was LAME.

Hal, bundled and bagged and ready to go down the canyon.

Zeke and Sophie, riding on the bigger haul sled (crafted by none other than Dave, patron Saint of Best Ave).

The sleeping bags kept sliding off of the sleds, and after several times of rearranging the bagged kids, we gave up and packed the sleeping bags away for good.

Casey started out hauling Soph and Zeke on the bigger sled, while I hauled Hal on the smaller one.  We soon swapped and I pulled the big sled the most of the way down.  (The bigger, heavier sled was easier to handle and Casey had mercy on me.)

Gorgeousness!

The first couple of miles down the canyon were wildly fast on the steep sections and S-L-O-W on the flatter terrain.  The steep sections were lots of fun and the kid's laughter followed us down the snow-packed road.  Below Elbow Fork, where the canyon gets a lot more traffic, the road was so packed that even though it's not super steep, we had a consistent fast ride all the way down to the gate.  That part was fun--skiing at top velocity with a sled riding my tail, Zeke grinning and giggling all the way.

While we loaded the sleds into the van at the parking lot below the gate, the kids did reps climbing the giant snow hills--the work of snow plows--packing out several long slides to the bottom.  Sophie and Hallee dubbed their hill "Glacier Mountain" and didn't want to load into the van to drive back to Salt Lake.  Actually, neither did I when I looked to the West and saw the thick grey soup filling the valley.  I was tempted to ski right back up that canyon and take up permanent residence in the yurt.  Next year we plan on staying longer.  Two days was too short, but this was one epic journey that our family will not soon forget.

Sophie and Zeke on "Glacier Mountain"

Hal packing a slide on "Glacier Mountain"

Our rosy-cheeked backseat passengers on the ride back to civilization