O Christmas Tree!

It was a beautiful day and not very cold.

On of our favorite things to do each year is go cut a fresh Christmas tree down in my home town of Ephraim. With the huge storm that rolled in the day before Thanksgiving, we didn't know how far up the mountain we'd get-- we hoped we didn't have to settle on a cedar tree from the mouth of the canyon!

The adventure actually started two weeks before Thanksgiving. Natalie had to drive with Laurie, Seth, and Grandpa all the way to Ephraim to get the tags. They were hoping to go just to Nephi, but they were sold out by the time they got there, even though the tags had only been on sale for a few hours. It was snowing all through Salt Creek Canyon and over into Fountain Green, but Natalie is a Utahn now, so she made the drive easily.

Seth and I had to make the drive to Ranger Station in Ephraim...

...And the drive there wasn't pretty!

I didn't have any trouble getting up the mountain to get the trees despite the snow, though everyone in our group ended up parking somewhere along the canyon road when they started to slip. We made it to our usually spot before getting stuck.

We needed to head back early for the Polar Express train ride in Lindon, so we set out for a tree right away. Due to my ankle, I saw the first tree-- probably an oak, and was ready to cut it and toss it in the truck, and Seth wasn't doing much better. He'd had enough and wanted to sit in the truck with Aunt Laurie before we got 25 yards off the road.

Finally, I talked Natalie into a tree that had no back. It is literally a 180 degree tree, and I hoped it would fit back against the wall, and it would be great if it would roll itself down to the truck, too. We found a second tree for the basement, and declared ourselves "done" within a half-hour.

The snow was pretty heavy, so Dad had to shake snow off the potential picks.

It's hard to get a picture of Dax without snow in his mouth.

Of course, we did four-wheeler rides, hot chocolate, and sledding, too. I got to take all the boys and Natalie for a ride. Dax really liked driving, Seth's face got too cold, and Mark and Nat never want me to do much other than go straight and not too fast. The sledding must have been okay, too, because we managed to crack two brand new sleds in half! It was another great trip to cut Christmas trees.

There was plenty of fresh powder, but the bottom of the hill was not sloped very nicely.

Seth liked the first and middle parts of the sled ride, but not the harsh stop at the end.

Mark is a trooper when it comes to Christmas tree cutting.

Ty's Chique de Jour is Savannah. I think she liked sledding with Seth.

That road doesn't look to bad, but only trucks (and Dad) were making it up the steep parts.

Four-wheeler rides are one of the most exciting parts of the trip.

And though hot chocolate is a newer part of the tradition, it is one of the best parts.

Dad tried to take a picture of Mom and Seth. Mom thinks it's a terrible attempt,
but Dad thinks it's one of his best efforts.

You know it's been a good day when Mark falls asleep.
(Dax and Seth sleep in the car all the time.)

Even after stopping for pizza and penny candy,
we made it back in time for our appointment to ride the Polar Express in Lindon.