Negative Forty and Still Smiling-- Winter Vacation 2015

We took our annual trek to the Adirondacks in NY for the Presidents' Day Weekend. The kids had been looking forward to it for months, and had a long list of things they couldn't wait to do.  And then the forecast came out for the long weekend, and it gave cold a whole new meaning:

Oh, my.  A high of negative 4. I packed layers, and layers, and more layers. For each one of the five of us.  Two pairs of snow pants each, two coats, multiple layers of mittens and scarves and hats and long underwear, we were prepared.  And we ended up having a great time, despite the cold!

We left at 4am, and the kids were great on the trip up.  We reconfigured the seats in our van, and put Elliott in the back row by Collette.  That gave us more space for all of our stuff, and gave Collette the job of keeping Elliott happy (which she relished, since she loooooves her role as Big Sister/Second Mother). :)  And we kept Trey in the middle seat so that he could pass stuff back to Collette, and because, well, bickering. :)  

When we got to Camp of the Woods, we looked at the weather and decided that, even though we were all tired, it was better to do some things that day, since it was one of two days we could probably be outside with the kids without getting frostbite (literally.)

So, we went snow shoeing to a frozen waterfall!

We put on about 5 layer each, and headed out.  Collette and Trey had requested that I make them scarves, and I am glad I did! I used super thick and fuzzy yarn, and I was happy they had them for our bitterly cold weekend.  We had a great time snow shoeing.  Trey was able to snow shoe for the first time, using the snow shoes we own, and he loved it.  Collette was excited to be a "big kid" and use the bigger snow shoes that Camp of the Woods provided.  And Elliott was snug in his backpack, so much so that he even fell asleep! By the end of the hike, the kids were shedding hats, scarves, and mittens.  I was pretty warm, too, and assumed it had gotten quite a bit warmer than was predicted. When we got back in our car and looked at them temperature, it was 5 degrees. Ha! You know it is a cold weekend when 5 degrees seems warm!

On Saturday, we most of us tried cross country skiing in the morning, and Lloyd and Trey snowshoed again.

And tubing in the afternoon.  In past years, we had tubed right at Camp of the Woods, but this year their tubing area wasn't open.  That turned out to be a good thing, because the other place to go tubing (a few miles away) had a lift-- so we didn't have to drag kids up the hill repeatedly! The bigger kids went tubing (you needed to be 36 inches to go, and each person had to ride independently, so no going together), and we took turns staying inside at the lodge with the younger kids.  Elliott and I went outside to watch for a bit, and once again he fell asleep! Such an easy going baby!

Sunday was bitterly cold, so we did indoor things, and only went outside to walk from building to building.  Even that was brutal! We had so much fun doing the rock wall, crafts, the inflatables, and, of course, the pool.  We went in the pool every day, sometimes twice a day.

I broke down and wore my super warm, Elmer Fudd-ish hat on Sunday evening, in the -49 wind chill. LL thought it was hilarious and kept trying to get a picture of me in it, so finally I agreed. :)

Here's our whole crew! Our family, plus LL's brother Andy and family, his sister Gwen and family, and her good friend Bryna and family.  11 kids 8 and under. That's how we roll.  :)