NOT Snow much Fun....

I had one of the worst days of my life yesterday….It still gives me “chills” thinking about it.

G.J. has been asking to go snowmobiling for years now. The last time we went was when Hallie was a tiny baby and his parents lived at their ranch during the winter. They go south for the winter now, but offered to leave the snowmobiles at our house in case we wanted to go. The ranch consists of 2,000+ lush snow covered rolling hills covered in snow. The last time we went over 8 year ago, I had so much fun.

I was going to let G.J. just take Hallie. Gavin “didn’t want to get snow in his face,” and Kayler is still kind of little. I was supposed to go clean Mandy’s house, but at the last minute, she cancelled, so we took the whole family. Little did I know that would be a blessing in disguise. I don’t want to think of what would have happened if it would have only been Hallie and G.J.

Anyways, after some confusion about getting trucks hooked up to the snowmobile trailer, fixing a flat tire, getting some lunch, we were on our way. I had packed us plenty of water, granola, nuts, fruit, snacks, candy, etc. in a little cooler. We had lots of snow clothes, and it seemed we were good to go. These pictures are the first…and last fun we had of the day.



About half the way in to the ranch, which is only a mile or so (I am not good with distance) both of our snowmobiles sunk into the very very deep and very soft snow. I was holding Kayler up above the snow while my body was buried to my chest in snow. It was so deep, and so cold. G.J. and the kids crawled towards me. You had to crawl, because if you tried to walk you would just sink into huge drifts of snow.

G.J. got my snowmobile unstuck, hopped on, and just left. I knew he was going to get help of some sort, but he didn’t say anything to me, so I was thinking what the heck am I supposed to do. I looked at my situation; me stuck in the snow, and my poor 3 little kids freezing. I could see the ranch house and it really wasn’t that far away. But every step was agonizing, and I knew it would take forever to get there, but I wasn’t staying out there. It was starting to snow pretty hard, and the wind was so bitter cold.

All who know me well know that I don’t cry very easy. We said a very tear filled heart felt prayer for help. I sent Hallie and Gavin crawling on their own and I put Kayler on my back and started to crawl. His little lips were turning blue and he was just sobbing, “Mommy, help me…I freezing, it hurts mommy, hurry, go to that house, I so cold.” He kept falling off my back and face planting in the snow, not helping matters any. After what seemed like hours. (Probably only 20+ minutes) we made it to the house.

I was SO grateful to have the house there, the only problem; it was almost as cold in there as outside. You could see your breath and your socks froze to the ground as you walked. I undressed us all and thank goodness the electricity was working so I put all of our clothes in the dryer. After awhile G.J. came and started a fire…which didn’t do much good at all, but at least we had a lot of blankets. We sang songs, watched movies, hid under lots of blankets, ate food, drank water, etc. G.J. worked on getting a backhoe out to get the road plowed so we could get out.

It was so so so cold in the house. I kept the kids warm as best as I could, but poor Kayler had blue lips still, and he would start shaking uncontrollably, and then kind of fall asleep. I didn’t want hypothermia to sit in, so I would try rubbing, holding him in lots of blankets, putting warm things from the dryer around him….anything to keep him from falling asleep and getting worse. I don’t think I have ever been that cold in my life. It was just terrible. For some reason (forgive me of the dramatics here) I looked around the beautiful ranch house that is so full of history, and couldn’t help but to cry and think of the ancestors before us that had worked so hard to get the house there. I thought even further of the pioneer mothers who had to watch their own children literally freeze right to death. I was a mess of tears, frozen snot…lol, and I am sorry to say I was a bit angry at G.J. for not hurrying more to get us out of there. I knew he was trying his hardest, but I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

He finally got the backhoe stuck too, so we had to call for help. My brother is a “Mr. Mountainman” so he came up with his brother and father in law. They were going to snow shoe in and help us out. G.J. had the idea of trying to use a snowmobile again, not knowing if we would just sink again (I wish he would have had that idea about 3 hours earlier) I got the house all cleaned up, the kids back in their snow clothes and we started to trek out again. G.J. took Kayler on the snowmobile, and Hallie, Gavin and I started the crawling. G.J. got Kayler out just in time when my brother made it. He came back and got Gavin and Hallie, then came back and got me.
I was NOT a happy camper. I will NEVER go snowmobiling again. My kids will never go again either. Maybe snow skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, etc…I know I am being dramatic and unfair, but that was seriously so traumatic to me.

So, after it was all said and done, we had to leave a ranch house not so clean (sorry Rosanne! I will make it back up there after the snow melts and clean it before you get home), a backhoe stuck, a snowmobile stuck, a huge garage left open….and G.J. will be the one getting it all back together with help from my brother as soon as the snow melts a little more. We did however make it home to a nice warm safe house, a hot bath for all of us, warm food for our bellies, and for that….I am very grateful.