Trip to Nowhere

 

I have Christmas cards to send out, kids to bathe, and a house to clean, but I am sitting at my computer for some therapy. It's been awhile and I am in need of some blogging. Where do I start...oh how about the snow...or lack thereof.

So, Ricky and I had the bright idea of taking the kids to the snow on Monday...we got an early start and headed out the door at about 9:00 a.m. We stopped at a Wal Mart along the way to get boots for Noah, chains for the truck, gloves for both kids, and some baby food for Maia. Maia and I stayed in the car since it was pouring rain while Ricky and Noah went in for a quick shopping trip. As I am in the middle of my fifth game of Bubble Breaker (on my cell phone) I get a call from Ricky...

Ricky: "Babe, can you look on the tires and tell me the size of them."

Me: "What? You want me to get out of the car in the pouring rain?"

Ricky: "Yeah. How else am I supposed to know what chains to get."

Me: "Argghhh, okay hold on."

I find a towel to put over my head, step out into the down pour. As I get out of the truck, the pile of things that I had on my lap, (scarf, blanket, sippy cup) fall to the wet ground and get soaked. I attempt to hold the towel over my head while picking up the drenched items. By this time, I am not too happy but I pop a squat in front of the tire and finally find the number. It is too long to memorize so I have to do it in two trips. 

  Eventually, Ricky found the right chains, and returned with the items. We piled the stuff into the truck (which was now making me claustrophobic because we had way too much stuff for our quick trip piled in it). As we drove down the 15, I noticed quite a few signs stating that the Cajon Pass was closed. I informed Ricky that we should probably exit the freeway and figure out another way to get to the snow but he insisted on going right up to where it was closed in hopes that the signs were lying and the Cajon Pass was actually open. Needless to say we got stuck in about an hour's worth of traffic and Ricky got my "I told you so" speech and an earful of Maia's screaming but he decided to power through and still attempt to find the snow. 

  The next diversion came in the form of my little princess refusing to drink her room temperature formula. We had to find a Starbucks in a hurry and get hot water for her bottle so that she would stop hurting our ears and let us continue our trip in peace. I got a latte to keep me sane and some hot water for the princess's bottle and climbed into the backseat (where I was unable to put my feet down because of the excessive amounts of stuff) and fed Maia her now warm bottle, while Noah whined for his milk and tugged at my sweater. The whining got old real fast so I multi-tasked: fed Noah his lunch to get him to stop whining, fed Maia her bottle, and tried not to feel claustrophobic or car sick. 

  Finally, we arrived at the windy road that would take us up to Big Bear. We explained to Noah 

that we he would get to play in the snow and that this long car ride would be worth the wait. He was so excited to "pay in the sow?"...Much to my chagrin, we hit a road block about half way up the mountain prior to reaching the snow. We were told that a truck had overturned but that it should be removed within the next 20 minutes. An hour and a half later, I told Ricky that I would rather poke my eyeballs out with a pen than sit there and wait for another minute. He got out of the car in the pouring rain and inquired about the situation. He found out that the wreck would not be cleared for another FIVE HOURS. So, we put our disappointed- bored- out- of their- mind kids back into their carseats and headed home. We spent a total of 5 hours straight in our truck for a trip to nowhere that day and poor Noah is still mystified as to why the heck his Mama and Daddy made such a big deal about this non-existent snow!

  

I have included some pictures of our trip.