New Years

New Years was an epic weekend. Epic maybe in a bad way.

We decided to continue our tradition with going to the Bay cabin over New Years. We haven't been since Hudson came into our lives. It's just so cold up there, but we handed Hudon off to the Grandparents for the weekend so we could go. It's a good thing we did. It was a great idea to go, until it started. Friday morning we head out. Chris, Kimba, Grant, me and the dogs. We wanted to leave at 10:00 but didn't until 11:30. Sounds about right for a road trip. That's ok though, because we weren't in a huge rush to get there. Get to Evanston to get gas, eat lunch, and get a gas can to fill up the rhino. Off to the cabin, yay. We get to the cabin around 2:30, unload the rhino out of the trailer and fill it up with luggage. Chris and Grant head off to take a load down while Kim and I wait at the top with the rest of the stuff and the dogs.

Quite a while goes by, Kim and I are taking pictures of us all dolled up in our snow gear.

I get a phone call from Grant and they got the rhino stuck. Oh if I took my camera with me. I regretted not bringing it down while Kim and I trucked a load of stuff on a sled and pulled it. The rhino got high centered in the snow and we could not get it out. We dug all around it and worked at it for a couple hours. Thankfully a snowmobile came by and the guy was nice enough to help us out. Thank Goodness! There was no way we were going to get it out of there. We didn't get inside the cabin until like 6:00 I think. It was crazy. When the rhino got stuck, Grant and Chris walked down to the cabin to open it up and Chris got a fire going. Mind you, it was 4 degrees up there during the day. By the time we got the rhino out, 3 hours later, it was below 0. Grant wasn't thinking and didn't put his snow gear on before him and Chris went down so he was in jeans this entire time. Because Grant was not in proper clothing I think he was into the first stage of hypothermia, which was pretty scary. That night he got a little dilusional, he burned holes in his socks from proping his feet up by the fire because he could not feel his toes. He would sweat, than freeze all night long. It was crazy to see him like that. I was really worried for him, but I stayed strong and positive. But I stayed right next to him all night to make sure he was ok.

Grant made sure there was a path on the deck to walk back and forth so he shoveled all this snow out of the way. Can you see the chair on the right? Exactly.

The snow was so deep as you can see. A good foot was ice so we weren't sinking the entire way down, but we'd hit a soft spot every once in a while and totally sink. No one had been to the cabin for a while so we had to make our own trail up to the cabin. Dragging all our sleeping bags, bags, food, and water with us. The poor dogs were freezing. I felt bad for them. They're wrapped up in a heating blanket. Grant is an amazing guy and made sure everyone was taken care of before he sat and rested. Probably because he knew once he stopped he wouldn't be able to go any more. Chris had hurt his back trying to get the rhino out, and Kim and hurt her leg so they were in charge of warming up the fire and getting dinner going. Grant and I went under the cabin to bring up enough fire wood to last the night.

We had some problems with the sewer pipe so that complicated things a little bit. Either the cabin was not winterized correctly, or someone went up after it was winterized and didn't properly shut it down. The pipe and toilet bowl had frozen water in them and the pipe had cracked so we were out of a toilet. The pipe does have heat tape on it so we turned the tape on and put a heater in the bathroom to try and defrost the pipes. It took the entire night and the next day to get the water back to liquid. So we all had to brave the outside. The guys normally do that anyways, but it was a new experience for myself and Kim. Yes, those 2 cups I'm holding our my pee cups. Kim and I got pretty good at it. No, we didn't share either. Hoop and Murdock showed up later that night around 10:00pm so they missed all the excitement. We're glad they made it ok. They had to stop in Evanston to buy some fireworks to light off at midnight.

There was so much snow that no one wanted to go outside and play in it. It was too much to play in actually. We've never seen that much snow up there before. It was insane. So we hung out all day basically inside and just enjoyed each others company.

Saturday night (New Years) Chris got sick and was throwing up all night. Outside of course. When we woke up Sunday morning, we decided to just pack up and get out. Chris was so sick he couldn't do anything. I felt so bad for him. Kim and I cleaned the place up while Grant, Hoop, and Murdock packed everything out. All the roads were plowed except the one leading down to the cabin so they drove Murdocks car down and loaded it all in that then drove it up to our jeep and transferred. We had the trailer attached to ours to carry everything. The same snowmobiler who helped us get the rhino unstuck was nice enough to give Chris a ride up to the car, because there was no way he was going to be able to walk. He couldn't even put his boots on and tie them without some help.

So we get everything loaded, and get in the car. And than...Our car won't start. We are stranded in the Unitahs all ready to go home. The boys played around with the car for a while trying to figure it out. We decide that it is the starter and everything we tried wouldn't work. So 2 hours later we decide to abandon our car and trailer, pile in Murdocks Explorer and head into Evanston. While this is happening Grants Dad Jerry called around trying to find a tow dolley to come pick up the Jeep because of course we can't find our warrranty information for the car to get it towed that way. (Seriously). Kim, myself, Lucky, Bandit, Chris, and Murdock drove up while leaving Hoop and Grant in Evanston while they wait for Jerry and Lonnie to go help with the car.

The starter was out in the car and eventually the battery died also because of the 2 hours we spent trying to figure it all out on our own.

I am so thankful for our friends and family. It is so nice to know that when we're stranded in the middle of the mountains at 0 degree weather we can call someone and they'll jump right up and come get us and help. There were so many things that went wrong on this trip, but it still was so fun and I would totally go to the cabin again in the winter. We'll just take extra extra precautions. Grant and I felt weird about going, but we wanted to go so bad. I packed extra food just in case we got stranded, and Grant packed tools and heaters for the car in case the car wouldn't start because of the cold. It's just a shame we didn't take a spare starter for the car or we could've fixed it all. We wanted to take Hudson so bad to the cabin and all I can say is thanks to the spirit for telling me not to. We wanted to take him so bad. He loves it up there.

So here's to an adventurous 2011! Wish us luck!