Oh, Christmas Tree

The middle of December brought with it our traditional trip to find our Christmas tree. We packed up the kiddos and headed up north to my parent's cabin. Along for the ride were, once again, the Kings and the Ballards. Much to our delight/chagrin (yay snow to play in - yuk snow to drive in) a blizzard went through the area earlier in the week. We were greeted with snow up to our knees, or hips in the kid's case. B was just thrilled to play in it. The morning after we arrived, we headed out into the forest to find and collect our tree. It was cloudy, but the snow held off while we were there.

Brody and friend were completely contented to throw snow balls at each other while all the dads went to look for our trees. Being 8 months pregnant, I opted to watch the kids instead of trek through the deep snow.

The smaller of the children were less than thrilled about the amount of snow they had to walk in. E complained and didn't move around much and our little pink Ballard felt the same way!

Here is Mr. Ballard with his gigantic tree.

And Mr. King with theirs.

Prince Charming didn't want to stick around for a picture. He is seen here hauling it back to the car.

Meanwhile, E allowed Auntie King to bury him in the snow.

On our way back to the cabin, the Ballards had a tree incident. Glad I was able to capture that on camera!

Back at the cabin, while the children rested, we were able to rest as well.

The trip wouldn't be complete without a fire to stay warm AND roast marshmallows as well as Mr. Ballard's funny expressions!

I also have to note that all of the kids played really well together. There were a few squabbles over trains and cars, but for the most part everyone was happy to play nice.

The weekend, although short, was fantastic. We love spending our time with these other two families and are thrilled that we have started a great tradition.

Without further ado, our 2009 Ponderosa Pine!