Christmas Tree Adventure 2011

      This year is our second Christmas together as husband and wife. Trust me, it's weird to us too! Last year Taryn and Steve, our old neighbors, bought us a Christmas tree permit. This year we decided to pay it forward and bought our new neighbors their permit. We decided to go this morning, since Sunday's have proven to be great adventure days for us in the past. I set my alarm early so I could bake some pull a parts and make coffee to take with us. By bake, I mean warm them up in the oven. We left our house at 8am and met Steven and Alanna on the way. They decided to go on a Christmas tree adventure with us, and we were happy to share it. 

     We hit the road and drove for about an hour until we got to the turn off to hunt for a tree. Last year it was snowy the whole way there. I was thinking it wouldn't be as pretty of a drive, but I was surprised by how beautiful it was even without being a winter wonderland. Once we got to the logging roads I was just excited that there was NOT snow, because no snow means no going in the ditch! Of course, what is a Kyle and Lisa adventure without something terrifying or hysterical? Kyle usually is in charge of terrifying me, and I'm the queen of awkward and hysterical. We were driving along when Kyle slammed on his breaks. He spotted some otters or beavers or something and was really stoked on that. Don't worry that is just a side note. A few moments later he slammed on his breaks again. This time he saw a creek (not a little baby stream, a creek) and decided he should drive down towards it. There wasn't no snow. Just no snow on the roads. This was not technically a road. We slid a little, but snow has nothing on our 4-wheel drive. Steven and Alanna pulled their jeep up next to ours. Kyle had crossed this with Steven in the summer apparently and thought it was a genius idea to do it again. Half of it was frozen over, and if you know me, you know all I was thinking about was WORST...CASE...SCENARIO. Deep dark freezing jeep eating hole under the ice. Waiting for a stupid boy with a 4-wheel drive car. He promises me we won't go across and he is just going to turn around. Lie. He started driving down the hill and into the water. I started screaming bloody murder(: I almost lost my voice when the ice started breaking and the jeep was not getting very good traction. Then the jeep started sinking into a huge hole...just kidding. We got across safely, and Kyle got a dead arm. 

driving back across

not happy

After my voice box and Kyle's arm were damaged we drove back across and kept going on our hunt. We spotted a couple of trees in the distance and decided they were worth hiking to. We found a few really perfect trees but decided to explore a little more. Kyle's tree needed to be cut about half way up, but that's how he did it last year as well. We wandered to a little baby meadow with moose tracks! (or we think that's what they were) and a frozen over little stream. Steven was walking on the ice so Alanna went to search for a tree, and I don't blame her for not wanting to witness the ice breaking. He was jumping on it, pretty sure because Kyle was standing next to him saying "jump steven, jump". It didn't break, and Alanna was off giggling to herself about a tree she found. Steven turned to look at the Whoville tree and when he turned back around the ice broke. He didn't fall in, but it was a little funny. If he fell in it would have been a lot funny. What?! I had extra socks in the car he could have borrowed...

our ridiculous family

steven and alanna

barbed wire. check!

 Anyway, we snapped a few photos. Taylor was uncooperative as always. That dog hates getting her picture taken more than my mom. Finally Kyle just picked her up and was going to bring her back over for a photo, and we decided a ridiculous picture was all that was going to happen. Sometimes you have to just go with it. Alanna and Steven made the wonderful choice of the curvy Who tree, and we picked the giant one. 

While the boys sawed down the trees we mustached ourselves with old mans beard. Cannot believe how helpful we are. Our productivity is wonderful. 
After the trees were cut down and trimmed a little we (and by we i mean mostly just the boys) took the trees up to the jeeps. I had to get a traditional picture of me pulling the sled and Kyle doing most of the work...

We trimmed them up and they looked quite nice. Not as out of control as last year I know, but it was still our annual Christmas Tree Adventure. It was a good break from studying and our busy lives. It should be Christmas time more often.

finished!

Merry Christmas!!!

 Love, us.