To the SNOW Jeeves...

Back in April, we took a little mini vacation to the Sequoia National Park.   We were supposed to go last November, but there were major snow storms going on and Adam spiked a fever the night before we were to head out there, so we decided we didn't want to risk getting stuck up in the mountains with a sick kid and the lodge allowed us to put off our reservation until April. 

Turns out the day we left, it was pouring rain here - and poured almost the entire trip over there too.  At one point I changed a diaper at a Sonic drive-in with rain dripping off the roof directly onto the back of my neck and down my shirt, ha!

We finally started driving through all the cute little towns heading into the mountains and the rain started to let up - I got excited because we could see all the snow covered peaks and it was so beautiful.  As we were almost to the entrance to the national park, we heard a familiar "BLORK" from the backseat, and our poor little man (who has a tendency to get carsick) threw up all over the place.  We stopped and did damage control, changed his clothes, got him some fresh air, cleaned out the car and the carseat, found the nearest dumpster and once again were on our way.  I sat in the backseat with him after that just in case it happened again, knowing we were about to be on a super twisty/curvy road for the next hour. 

A few miles up, it started raining again...and eventually as we climbed higher, the rain turned to snow.  I was even starting to feel a little blah because to the curvy road, and as I looked at Adam, he was really green and not looking so good.  He started throwing up again and luckily I had a big tall cup that I just held for him - poor guy - there simply was NO place to stop or pull over (anyone who's been on that little mountain road knows what I'm talking about) plus it was freaking SNOWING, so we didn't have a choice but to keep driving.  Poor hubs felt so bad, he had a hard time not being able to stop and help his boy, but we hung in there and opened all the windows for fresh air and I had blankets bundled up around him so he wouldn't freeze - it got better...and eventually he dozed off.  The snow was so thick coming down that we could only go about 20 miles per hour, so that just made it really slow going.  At one point, we passed a guy in a prius going the opposite direction who had pulled over and was standing just behind his car, and just around the corner from him, we came upon a BEAR - in the middle of the road, snowing like crazy and there's a freakin BEAR just cruising past us lumbering down the road.  I was GIDDY with excitement, but since I was in the backseat I didn't get a picture of the darn thing, and hubs was driving and going really slow trying not to hit the BEAR in the road - so we missed our opportunity.  Still really cool though!   

We momentarily wondered if we should go warn the guy in the Prius who was probably about to pee off the side of the mountain only to turn around and see a bear coming his way....ha!

(we didn't - and we never heard about a nerdy white guy in a prius getting eaten by a bear, so we called it good)

Anyhow - we FINALLY arrived and found our lodge.  The road was closed right at the road to the lodge, so it's a good thing we didn't need to go any further then that!  Oddly enough, we didn't need any chains that whole trip up either.  Despite all the snowing, the roads were good.

It was kind of a walk from the main lodge to where our room was, luckily they provided luggage carts for us, ha!

A car in the parking lot...

It was almost dark when we arrived, so once we carried our shivering boy up the hill to our room and got settled, we decided to go to the main lodge and have dinner at the restaurant (the ONLY place to eat up there, luckily we brought a ton of our own food).   It was still lightly snowing when we started our walk down there...

The restaurant was one of those fancy pants places that was really quiet and candlelit, except that we have a 2 year old who is not-so-quiet or fancy (I mean really, a wine GLASS of water for a 2 year old?) so we sort of ate and ran and ordered our meals take out after that.

The next day was clear and GORGEOUS - so we were snapping away!

He couldn't really put his arms all the way down we had him so stuffed in those clothes!

Hubs pulled on this tree branch and I snapped the picture right as a huge chunk of snow fell off...

We decided to head down to the General Sherman tree - which I've only seen during the spring/summer seasons.

There was a path cut out, but it was only about the width of our feet and definately a one person trail.  Adam was walking in front of me and took the lead - we weren't sure how he'd do in the snow, but he just trudged up the hill like it was nothing, we were AMAZED at how well he did on that hike

Let's just say he was not happy about being shoved into the carseat with all those layers on...

grumble, grumble, grumble

As the sun was going down that evening, the whole place just felt so magical - so quiet and serene - we were thrilled to just cruise around on the walking trails and enjoy the scenery with our boy

I kept calling these Dr. Seuss Trees

not so happy about being put into thigh deep snow...

To be continued....