Winter wonderland....and cows

This past weekend we dragged our children, aupair Angel and his girl friend Consuelo to the river to experience winter as it truly is...SNOWY.  This year we have had an incredible amount of snow in Waterloo and the snow is always even deeper near Gus's parent's river property.  Each year it is fun to go up to the river and see the mushrooms of snow on top of whatever furniture we forgot to put away before the snow came.  It is especially beautiful to look at the ice sculptures made from the millions of tiny waterfalls escaping from the rock cliffs into the river.

Despite this beauty, we rarely visit the river in the winter, especially with kids.  We have to haul all our possessions in a kilometer from the road, dig out the cabin (there was 1 meter of snow blocking the doors) and light fires, all this with two toddlers in tow.  And then we are confined to the 100 square foot cabins for the rest of the weekend.  I always imagine hours spent outside building snow forts and tobogganing down the big hill to the river, but Darwyn starts crying the instant you set her in the snow and Max doesn't care for tobogganing because he might get snow in his face.  Not that it matters, the snow was so deep and fluffy that any toboggan would sink a foot deep into the snow the instant you sat on it.  And so it goes that we rarely get up to the river in the winter anymore.

Fortunately, we have made some new friends at the river that, this year and last, offered us the use of a beautiful extra house that they happen to have lying around.  They built it a couple of years ago as a retirement home and then forgot that they were going to retire.  Ah well, our gain.  So we've made it a yearly tradition to go up to the river once in the winter.  This year,we made a couple of trips to the barn to see the animals, climb on the hay bales and play in the tractors.  And we also got to visit the beautiful river oasis without having to backpack in two days worth of gear.

It was especially fun this year because we could show off winter, real winter, (not that..oh we have snow on a mountain in Spain stuff that Angel is always talking about) to our Spanish Au pair and his Chilean girl friend (although Chile apparently also gets real winter...but in the summer....they are all backwards there).  Also that gave us extra adults so we could stay up late playing board games.  The whole weekend would have been idyllic if our children had slept at all...oh well.

Anyway, this doesn't make much of a story, so I will stop talking now and just post some pictures from the trip.  Enjoy!

I just like this picture

Our total snow get up.  It is the rare stroller that would allow you to move
your kids around in 3 ft of snow!  It is hard to see, but the chariot is
outfitted with skis!

Angel's first attempt at snow shoes (and we stuck a chariot behind him).
It was a little tough getting started.

This picture would have been adorable if it weren't for that stupid
flap on his toque.   I promise his expression shows his thrill.

We got to ride the pony, Star.  Unfortunately, she refused to move.

Darwyn enjoying cheese and posing for the camera

More posing for the camera....

This is the entrance to the river property.  Can you find the gate?

Consuelo in front of the winter falls

And Angel in front of the winter falls

This picture isn't so fabulous...but I thought the snow on top of the
outdoor shower really demonstrates how the snow tends to
mushroom on top of everything.  Also you can see how deep the snow
is....note that the snow on the shower is farther away from the camera than
Angel, but it is about half his height.

Here I am behind a mound of snow that had piled up in front of
the kitchen overhang.... it made a great fort.

Consuelo and the kids attempting to warm up around the non-existent fire.

The mill in winter.  No one wanted to try diving through the chute.

Gus and the mill

Max with snow in his mitt.