This weekend has been about making memories with my family. I am still glowing from the experience. We decided to snowshoe at Mt. Ranier this weekend. We got new snowshoes in March, but with the business of Disney in April, never got the opportunity to use them. The weather has remained cold with continued snow in the mountains. We talked about wanting to go one more time. Finally, time passed and Memorial Day presented that opportunity. I made reservations at our family hangout, Alexander’s Country Inn. I cannot speak highly enough about this place. It has been our home away from home many a time. The meals, the grounds, the rooms. All stuff to gush over.
I was not ready to go on Friday night. After an afternoon of swimming, I was worn out. I was thankful for our leisurely approach to leaving. Wayne headed to Costco. I diligently packed. It takes awhile. Wayne noted that we are front end packers. We do most of the organization on the front end. On the back end, we tend to just throw stuff back into place haphazardly. That’s why our front end packing is always so laborious. It’s more organizing and looking for equipment and checking stuff. It took me all the hours the day had to give.
We left after lunch. The drive was nice. The scenery started to change. I could feel the sense of travel coming. I foolishly thought about trying to take a short nature hike at Longmire before dinner. Wayne had a better sense of time. When we arrived, it was misting and cold. We hauled all our gear inside. Our room was 12. It was right outside the lounging area/living room. The girls first ran to the tall chess game. Sara beat Wayne. We had hot chocolate and tea. Wayne had wine. Laura played with her elephant. I played life with Wayne and Sara. By the time I blinked, it was time for dinner.
Dinner, as always, is lovely. Wayne got the trout. I got the lamb with port and cherry sauce. The girls enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches. Wayne and I split the strawberry short cake. Wayne had a headache and headed to bed. I took the girls on the promised hot tub adventure. It was late. We shared the tub with another family of 5. My girls treated it like a pool and kept trying to dive underwater. They had fun, but getting out was cold. The girls were cranky with having to take a shower. Our bathroom, while private, was separate from the room. We had to walk across a hallway to get to it. It made for a little dicey times, but not too bad.
We all slept in. We had the first breakfast reservation at 0800. It was set up as a buffet. It allowed us to sample everything. Hot chocolate, juices, yogurt, toast, english muffin with lovely strawberry jam, eggs, ham, apple crepe, etc. That was the entire family’s choice (not just my breakfast). We got to the room by 9am and took another 30 min to organize. There was an osprey at the trout pond enjoying the free meals that the girls delighted in spotting and watching. An hour to drive up to Paradise. The snow walls kept rising the higher we got up the mountain.
It took us another half hour to gear up. At 34 degrees, we were wearing too much. We got on the trail at 1030ish. After 100 yds, Laura started to complain. The conditions were misty with almost white out sighting. That ended any thought of going to Nisqually overlook. We adjusted by taking off our fleece layer. We walked up more. There was fresh powder and plenty of snow. At 500 yrds, Wayne was exacerbated with our lack of progress. I had been standing for over an hour in all the prep. My ankles were aching and I asked to stop. So we just stopped and played. This made Laura enthusiastic. Sara rolled down the slope. Laura made a snowman and rolled. Wayne and Sara raced on snowshoes downhill. The snow was perfect for trying out our shoes. We snacked. I let Wayne go on further so he could feel he’d actually walked somewhere. We then spend another 30 min going through deep, fresh snow trying to get to the Paradise Inn. Wayne and I acted as ski poles for Laura, supporting her on either side. Sara was a champ, just running effortlessly on her shoes.
The Inn provided a nice place to eat lunch. We had their spinach salad with pear vinaigrette and walnuts. Then we headed home. We didn’t arrive home till 6pm. We hung up the wet things, but bummed around the rest of the evening. Wayne and I watched An American Werewolf in London. A favorite from my teen years. Definitely a funky, campy, clever movie with an off British gory sense of humor. It actually spawned the Oscar for makeup with it’s effects.
Today, we unpacked and prepped for having a gathering. We tried to do more back end stuff since we’ll be back at Ranier in a few short weeks. Sara could not wait for Carly to come over. It had been long since we’d seen Carly et al. I’m always impressed with how much they travel and explore the NW. Good role models for us. The food was nice and went smoothly. You can’t beat brats, hotdogs, and hamburgers. All 7 kids played and had a good time. Laura persuaded Adam to be Flynn Ryder, pretending a rope was her hair and standing on our slide on the deck to be her tower from Tangled. She found a good playmate in Adam as he’s older and tolerant enough to follow her orders. I got to read to Ruth and Grace and had lots of snuggle time with both girls.