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January 25, 2003

Our pre-Christmas Adventure

I’d like to tell you that I’ve caught up with my diary through Christmas and January, but I just haven’t. The holidays are such an integral and fun part of our life tha tI just felt I couldn’t give them short shrift. So, this entry is devoted to our pre-Christmas snow adventure and I promise to finish the rest soon.


I spent most of the years between 4 and 9 living in the far reaches of Northern California, in a tiny town called Susanville. We had a large patch of land, tons of animals, and the freedom to play in our massive yard. It was an amazing way to grow up and being alone amongst trees and animals cultivated my creativity. It also gave me a keen appreciation for snow and freezing-cold weather. So when, the Sunday before Christmas, John woke up and said, “Hey, I know. Let’s go to the snow today!” I tried to reason with him. Going to the snow is an endeavor that requires much more than just the getting in the car, putting feet to pedals and turning the wheel. Snow days with two grown adults require more than that and for god’s sakes, we have three kids. I was certain, and, let’s be honest here, I am still certain, that John is sometimes a child dressed in a very convincing man costume.

Not only did my betrothed insist that that Sunday, of all days, was the perfect day to go play in the snow, he had only the night before purchased one neon green plastic saucer at Fred Meyers and was dying to, as he put it, “send one of the kids flying down a hill!”

Really, I’m not kidding you, I checked him for head injuries. Was there adequate ventilation in the house? Had the egg nog gone bad? These ideas were so far-off from what one, let’s say for example – me, might consider reasonable and normal that I felt faint and literally complied only out of sheer shock and disbelief. I’m not kidding you, I may have Post-Traumatic-Spouse-Disorder. Who sends a 4 and 3-year old down a snow-packed hill on one of those plastic death-saucers?

Still, going to the snow sounded fun, so we piled the car up with snowsuits, extra clothes, bottles and snacks, camera and film, snow chains and, of course, the neon green plastic saucer, and headed towards Mount Hood and Government Camp.

Two eventful hours later (“Yes, I understand that you can’t let us use your restroom. I know that whenever I was working I always looked forward to mopping up smelly puddles!”) we hit Government Camp and stopped to purchase day-long Sno-Park passes. Passes are cheap and simply cover parking fees for the day at the various sledding areas in and around Government Camp.

We planned on going up to either Snow Bunny or Trillium Lake, and got back on the road. Literally 100 feet from Government Camp we turned a corner and hit snow flurries. The ground was covered in that brown snow-slush and required slow and careful driving to make it through. 100 feet after that it got worse and we realized from the steady line of cars pulling over that, yes, we would need to use those snow chains. There was a group of young men putting them on vehicles for $10. John thought this was highway robber (no pun intended). I considered them saints. I might add, in case you don’t remember, I’m the one with the snow experience, and John is the one who lived in Southern California his entire life until 2 short years ago.

But, like all men, he was insistent that he could put the chains (actually called “cables” now)on just fine, thank you very much. I asked him two or thirty times if he was sure, after all – I learned the vast majority of my curse-word vocabulary from listening to my dad put the chains on our old Buick. John insisted we would be fine, and so I was relegated to the front seat, doling out snacks and bottles and juice cups and singing, “Fruit Salad” and “I’m a Little Tea Cup” for the next 40 minutes while John grunted and groaned and cursed those damn cables on. And I had the pleasure of watching all the other cars whose drivers were either female or experienced and had paid the lovely young men on the side of the road to put their cables on speed off literally 7 or 8 minutes after pulling in. John, to his credit, afterwards swore he’d never, ever try to put the cables on himself.

From the pull-off point Snow Bunny and Trillium Lake weren’t far. It still took another 20 minutes or so to drive the 4 miles there, but it was lovely to watch the snow hit the car and to watch the kids faces as they wondered at the white drifts. Chloe talked constantly – she was terribly excited and seemed to want nothing more than to lie in the snow and take it all in. Ivan just laughed and Giselle suckled on her bottle.

We stopped at Snow Bunny Park first and realized pretty quickly that we’d have to leave. They only had one medium-sized hill, and it was overrun by young teens in large inner tubes. There was no way I was going to put my children anywhere near that hill. We decided to get back in the car and go up the road another 100 yards to Trillium Lake.

This snow park turned out to be better since there was a smaller sledding hill, younger kids, and an area where we could build snowmen and play. John still harbored the delusion of sending the kids down the hill in the death-saucer until he got a good look at one kid, who looked to be about 9, flying down like a rocket and then smashing into a tree towards the bottom of the hill. The kid was fine – even laughing – but John quickly realized that, yes indeed, Chloe and Ivan were much to young to really sled. He did talk me into putting them on a side hill, all of three-feet tall, and even that was a little precarious. Ivan loved it but crashed every time. Chloe did it once and then swore it off for good (smart girl). We spent the next few hours playing in the snow, taking pictures, and trying to build the best snowman possible. It was a wonderful day, despite all the work it required and we got home later that evening tired, but content.

The next morning Chloe woke up with a fever. And by afternoon Ivan and Giselle were running tempetures as well. The all had the flu. When we had left for the snow they seemed healthy but it becamse readily apparent that they had been harboring some virus or bug. I’m sure that the snow play didn’t cause the illness, but it probably made it come on stronger. The next two days weren’t particularly fun, but we all hung in there and having Christmas so close really seemed to brighten everyone’s mood, despite the sickness. I only hoped that the kids would still be well enough to enjoy Christmas.