We’d bought the snow chains back in December, the snow had been falling in the mountains, we’d bought two new sleds and the boys had their salapettes – clearly it was time to hit the snow!
On Saturday I’d conducted a test run of fitting snow chains to the tyres. It went badly. At no point did the chain ever get fixed to the tyre – even though it should only take five minutes! I thought about persevering with the test but then decided that it was bound to be okay and we wouldn’t need them! A quick search on Google confirmed that the road was dry and clear – so the snow chains could wait until another day!
On Sunday morning we were up and at them! The car was loaded with sleds, coats, hats, scarves, blankets, food and water (the last three items for if we got stuck in the mountain pass because we couldn’t fit snow chains!) and off we went. The destination was Hyak Snow Park. Hyak is not a ski resort and doesn’t have tubing – it is just an area with trails and sledding areas so we thought this was a good place to start and get a feel for it all.
As we drove up the mountain side towards the snow Toby saw two bears by the river – one of which was just oiking a fish out the river – and if that was not enough, just a few miles further on he also saw some penguins playing by the river!
Forty minutes after leaving the house we parked up in the snow and the fun began! We put on our thermals, layers and winter coats on and started playing. Minutes later we were all sweating and wishing we hadn’t put so many layers on – lesson learnt for next time! The boys spent ages going up and down slopes, Tracy kept disappearing up to her waist in snow with squeals and giggles and I managed to floop about quite a lot too! In fact the only one who didn’t suffer from sinking in the snow was Toby – he’s obviously a very lightweight little boy!
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There are a lot of videos but don’t worry they are only short!
httpv://youtu.be/0zSaBf8F0OU
httpv://youtu.be/hH07nRa-2mU
httpv://youtu.be/Er1ojqTIPXg
httpv://youtu.be/JqBjBmsSYjM
httpv://youtu.be/XA3M0zlFm_k
httpv://youtu.be/4nnIVvz2i7g
httpv://youtu.be/WbzRLuDron4
httpv://youtu.be/kZfTKVlNpnc
httpv://youtu.be/PKjQExwPsA0
httpv://youtu.be/0mgSva3eMfU
httpv://youtu.be/PJoLuuG0E_U
httpv://youtu.be/IfNwtNhfroE
After a couple of hours of fun in the snow we thought we’d check out the tubing area but it was chaos so, as we were all ravenous, we decided it was time for hot chocolates and brunch! After stuffing ourselves with pancakes, omelettes, hash browns and eggs benedict, it was back off down the mountain.
And forty minutes later we were back home on a mild, slightly overcast January day with no sign of snow at all.