New Year's day snow trip

We headed up to the mountains as a family for New Year's Day. It was cold and exhausting. A lot of work to round up all that gear, and to get it on. It almost seemed like too much, but this view was worth it. We hope to go again this season.

Our plan was to go snowshoeing. We had never done that as a family before. April went with Dad when she was about 8 or 9, but that was the last time anyone from our family had gone. So, we started out with her shoes, and Dad's shoes. We had to round up 4 more pairs of pretty much adult size snowshoes.

Getting all the gear on was a workout. The snowshoes were the trickiest because most of us had never done it before. It could have been a good idea to try putting them on before we got up to the snow. Oh well, it worked out! Though, I have to admit that I was tired after just getting to the trailhead and putting my snowshoes on.

I was also already hot! I had put on a fleece and a shell, and by the time I was done getting my snowshoes on I was sweating. I unzipped both. That helped a lot! I didn't want to take anything off because I didn't want to carry anything else. This picture is funny. I'm not sure why I left one of the walking sticks laying down.

Walking along the trail was just so serene. Besides the crunch of our shoes on the snow, it was pretty quiet. We passed a few other families too.

 Beautiful scenery. The world looks so beautiful in white!

 Aaron ready to go...

 Alex was all over the place. He loved the snow. He would go back into the tree areas off the trails and peek out. He had a blast.

Alex ready to go...

Aric ready to go...

In this picture it looks like someone might be enjoying the snow while making snow angels, but that is not the case. Aric had a hard time keeping himself upright! He would trip over his snowshoes, and it was hard for him to get back up. He just decided to lay there for a bit, and I snapped a picture of it. Imagine a lot of whining if you could hear the sound in this picture...

The trees heavy with snow...

 I was happy that I decided to bring my big camera, and not just my phone. I was able to get some great shots. Michele took this one of us walking down the trail. The sun was shining the whole time.

 April ready to go...

Walking along the trail...

April thought she could get that mound of snow off the tree trunk, but she didn't have enough leverage with her walking stick. That snow was stuck!

More scenery...

At the end we all took off our snowshoes and started lining them up at the back of the truck. It turned out to be a perfect picture, one of my favorites!

Afterwards we had some daylight left so the boys were itching to get in on the sledding action. They had fun going down the hill a few times.

The sunset as we were leaving was incredible!

That's about all! Our trip to the snow is complete!