Sledding

As far back as I can remember I have wanted to be an explorer.  When I was old enough to actually bring my desires to fruition, I took off and studied abroad in Ireland, traveled Europe, then Pete and I explored Europe, Asia, and North Africa.  All of this traveling and adventuring definitely created a wanderlust in my heart that is difficult to satiate now that life requires so much routine and stability. Sacrificing my vagabond tendencies for my children I do happily, but I still definitely entertain daydreams about travel and far-off lands.  However, this weekend I had a realization.  We spent this weekend at Government Camp, staying at the Huckleberry Inn and sledding at Summit.  The kids loved time playing in the snow and, as always, family time makes my heart happy.  But beyond that I thought about how lucky I am to be from Oregon.  We spent New Year at the Oregon Coast drinking up the sun and exploring the shore, and then two weeks later (and the same drive time) we were up in the mountains enjoying an entirely different kind of beauty and adventure.  There are not too many other places on the planet where this is possible.  For the moment, my vagabond heart said, "This is ok for now.  This awesome to give your kids a foundation in such an amazing place, where they can appreciate nature and the outdoors.  There will be more time for exploring far-off places in the future (inshallah)."  I didn't get too many pics, as I didn't take my phone sledding, but here are a couple:

Sweet Emma was so excited to build a snowman.

Snowball fight!

Snow clothes are definitely not Sofie's favorite (note the skirt she is wearing), but once she got everything on and talked herself into the fact that the feel of them was ok, she loved her snow time.

Adventurer Lucy was thrilled!

This was a pic from last weekend at the park.  Lucy got to adventure in the forest there and created a ninja training course that Pete and I went on with her.

And this is from Emma's preschool - her idea of what snowmen do at night.