A Weekend at Mt. Baker

Thanksgiving was very different 

for our family this year ... 

but very FUN.

After 20 years of going to a Christian Family Camp in Oregon for Thanksgiving, we had to make other plans this year because I got a job at the Family Christian Store for the holidays.


Since I knew it would be hard on all of us if we "just stayed home", Papa and I decided that we would take the kids up to Mt. Baker for the long weekend.  It was close enough to home that I could drive in to work on Friday, but far enough away that it was definitely still "a weekend away".


And ... seriously a bonus ... we had no internet or cell phone reception.  We were less than an hour from home, but the little town we stayed in is kind of tucked into the side of the mountain and doesn't get any reception.  (You can get cell reception just 15 minutes down the mountain ... or 15 minutes up the mountain.  But, the little town of Glacier loses all cell service.  Which ... we thought was GREAT.)

So ... what did we do without internet or cell phone service?  

We ate good food.  

We played games.  

We read books.  

We ate more food.  

We played more games.  


We watched a few movies.


We ate more good food.

We enjoyed each other's company.

Here are a few pics from our time at The Mountain ...

We ate good food.

(Thanksgiving Brunch Casserole)

We took naps.

(Gregg came up from Seattle for the day.)

We went up to the ski area on Thursday and

FROZE Our Faces.

(The wind was whipping and the snow was blowing.)

We couldn't go sledding in the storm,

but we played in the snow.

(Bad picture due to CRAZY blowing snow.)

We hid in the trees to get away from the wind.

(Let' play, "Finding Hosanna".)

We went back up to the ski area on Saturday,

and went sledding in the RAIN.  

Seriously.

It was 36 degrees and RAINING,

but we still had FUN.

We warmed up in the Hot Tub at the cabin.

We cooled down in the rain.

Yes.

We sat in the hot tub in the rain.

That's what you do when you live in Western Washington:

you don't wait around for it to quit raining,

or you would miss out on a lot of living.

Despite the disappointment of missing our 20 year tradition,

we had a whole lot of FUN at The Mountain.

It was kind of nice to only be an hour away.

We didn't miss the CRAZY traffic that we always 

get going to and from Oregon for Thanksgiving.

It was nice to not have any schedule for 5 days

(except when I had to drive in to work on Friday).

While we LOVE going to Family Camp,

it is a very structured and scheduled weekend.

While we certainly missed being with all of the other Big Kids,

it was very nice to spend the holiday with Gregg.  

He couldn't stay for the weekend, though, as 

he had to work at 6:00am on Black Friday.

It was GOOD.

It was FUN.

We were BLESSED.