The California Version of a Snow Day

Yesterday on our day off, our family did what families here do when they want to see a little bit of winter. We went to the snow. Yes, that's right. Even though the trees are beginning to bloom and there are spring flowers everywhere here in town, there is snow just an hour away, and lots of snow at that. Knowing this, and having some time on our hands, we decided to abandon spring for a short while, and drove off to get back to winter.

Our first step was to pull out all of our snow clothes, especially for the boys. Of course we discovered that their snow pants were on the small side, and there was no way the snow boots were going to fit either of them. However, we got them both set up with hiking boots, and they just wore their snow pants a little too short.

The good news was that it was a wonderful day outside, and if you were in the sun, your coats, hats, and gloves were even a little on the warm side. This allowed the boys to cavort about freely in the snow - mainly just taking care to avoid getting too wet or, even worse - getting a snowpants wedgie (an unfortunately frequent event when you have too-small snowpants).

There are snow parks you can go to up in the area we were in, but our "snow guide" friends knew a great spot just off the side of a road that was perfect. There was a "treacherous" sled run, a wide open basin at the bottom, and plenty of room to set up the grill to cook our lunch on. There were even two snowforts already dug out and waiting for snowball fights.

The view of our "snowpark" from the road.

The boys work on their fort.

It was a very nice day, and gave us all that dose of winter that we had all been missing. Then we took the short ride back down the mountain to the flowering trees and the daffodils. Not a bad way to spend the day off, really - having fun in two different seasons within one hour of the other.