How Jack emerged on his birthday :-D
<3
It was neat to watch the ice/snow chunks drift to shore throughout our stay.
The boys' room was SO cool!
Sadly, poor Mike still had to do work on Thursday and Friday, so we tried (our best?) to not disrupt him.
I figured our best plan was to get everyone out of the house. We drove to Twin Falls, which was only 2.4 miles from our house! And it looked like there were only a couple of other pairs of footprints that had ventured on the snowy trail to the waterfall in the days before us. And this lovely snowman/woman?
We all managed to slide down this hill in snowboard fashion, minus the snowboard (Even, Max, who was carrying Penny!).
Except for maybe Abby, who resembled a malfunctioning windmill (Lol... we love you, Abby!)
A neat "sea cave" formed by erosion
These woods reminded me of Narnia (especially knowing that we were missing a 65° day back home. Always winter...)
We came across a very neat cave higher up on the hill- I could barely get up holding Penny, the snow was so slippery.
See the frozen waterfall behind her?
Toby and Joel had jumped across the creek and come in to the waterfall from the other direction. We were kind of stuck further up. Some of the bigger kids climbed down the treacherous rocks to get closer to the waterfall, but I headed back with Zeke and Penny.
At one point, the three of us tried to cross over the creek so we could see the waterfall close up, too (Zeke REALLY wanted to), but we got stuck and after praying to our guardian angels and trying to go back up but only slipping back down (and almost falling into the icy water), we had to call out for help. Max came to our assistance. I passed the little two up to him and pulled myself up using some spindly branches. Max volunteered to take Zeke with him, and I took Penny back to the van. She had been sobbing, she was so frightened when we couldn't get back up.
When going back, we had to either go up a steep hill or cross over a little snowy ice bank. I couldn't tell whether it would hold me, or whether I would go through to water. I just made a choice of what seemed like the shorter, easier path and ended up going through the ice- just up to my shin and ankle. Poor Penny was pretty shaken at this point and DONE, so I kept over-exaggerating what an exciting adventure we were having. This was the best smile she could muster.
Later, the big kids sent me the pictures they'd taken... and wow! I'm so glad they got to get up close and walk BEHIND the frozen waterfall.
But if I had been there, I would have put the kibosh on the climbing of said waterfall. Climbing a frozen waterfall... of slippery ice? Nope. Nope. Nope!
Dear Guardian Angels of my boys: I don't say thank you enough. Thank you for keeping them alive and so miraculously free of injuries. And thank you for allowing them to occasionally have lapses of good judgement so they can have these adventures when I am blissfully unaware of them. As I know they will treasure the memories.
Also, shout out to my girls' guardian angels! (Maybe I shouldn't ask my kids to send me their pictures and keep their near falls-off-of-cliffs to themselves).
A nice, quiet 1,000 piece Sistine Chapel puzzle, per the birthday boys' request.
Such extraordinary, peaceful surroundings
Tuckered out
We moved him from the table for dinner, and he curled up and went back to sleep.
Another glorious sunset
What a blessing to be able to spend his birthday with him! We've been so blessed by this boy/man? for 19! years!
We saved his real birthday outing wish for the following day, Saturday, when Mike would be able to join us: a trip to the Apostle Islands via ferry and a hike through Big Bay State Park...
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