Wednesday, February 6, 2008

"On the Other Side of the Mountain....the Other Side of the Mountain.."

Here's how the story goes.......

(Chris calls coming home from work about 4:00)

Chris: Hey hun get the monkey's stuff together and get your camera, let's go drive out by the lake and take some pictures. There's snow on the Superstitions and fog everywhere, you'll be able to take some pretty cool pictures. You want to?

Me: (Uhhh Uhhh frantic thinking of all the things to put together real quick and how i'm going to wake the monkey from her slumber without having a cranky child at the same time) Sure yeah that sounds like fun, we're totally ready just hurry home.

We're loaded up in the car about to pull out of the drive way when we hear honking. Chris's dad pulled up behind us.

Dad: "Hey where you guys headed?"

Chris: "The Snow, wanna come?"

Dad: "YEAH!!!.....let me go ask mom if she wants to come."

It's now about 4:15 it's already getting dark from the stormy weather and we're losing daylight for prime picture taking opportunities. We pile blankets in the car when we see Nan pull up with my neice we'll call her monkey #2!! :)

Nan: "Hey where you guys going?"

Chris: "The snow wanna come?"

Monkey #2: "SNOW???!!!??? (panting, excitement, jumping up and down)

15 Min later......we're all loaded up in the big suburban headed out by the lake to look at the mountains in the distance with snow on it, hoping to find a little at least on the side of the road for the kids to touch, to make the trip worth it for them. Cause we all know monkey #1 does NOT like to be in her car seat for more than 10 min.

Nan busts out her backpack full of snacks like we were leaving on a week long trip...bless her! The ipod comes on and thus, the theme song for our excursion began. "The other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain, the otherside of the Mount-IAAAANNNNNN!!!" Whoever made up that song should be shot. LOL since I hated it, Nan decided at every opportune time to sing it or bring it up!!

So we ended up driving, then drove a little further, then a little farther than that.....all the while chris is sitting in the back seat smushed between carseats and his "LADIES" as he referred to them for the trip, saying dad pull over this is a good spot, dad pull over, dad pull over!! I suddenly saw my husband with different eyes. Like I had flashed back to when he was 5 and I was hovering over their family vehicle witnessing what he must have been like on family trips :) Well what was once going to be our little family outting of just Chris, me, and monkey! A loving gesture by him to encourage his wifes growing love of taking pictures, ended up being a village outting to Payson!!!! Yes we drove all that way and had a blast the whole way there. Not so much on the way home 4 hours later b/c Monkey 1 had, had it and wanted to be home. But the pictures, laughing, snow, fog, and our little peanut gallery in the back making funny comments (monkey 1, 2, and chris) made it so worth the drive! :) Here's a little taste of our trip, click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger. They are in order of our trip so now you can feel like you were on "The Other side of The Moutain" with us! :)
This is just out by the lake which in a couple months will be around 100 degrees insane!!
If any of you saw some pics in a post about amonth ago of us out by the river at sunset with the "Red Moutain" in the back this is the same moutain with fog all over it. Beautiful
View from the B-Line
It's a little weird when you see cactus and snow in the same picture
I love this one. Click on it cause the bigger view is even better
Incase you're wondering why I'm rambling between pictures is b/c it's not letting me put spacing between each photo for some reason so i'm rambling instead :)
See in Arizona we have our own Northern Lights as well :)
Everyone kept telling me, take a picture of the tree, take a picture of the tree!! I guess they all thought it was cool the the snow was still stuck to the tree!?!
This would be the side of the road where Chris was yelling, "Pull over dad, pull over dad!!" When you have to say, "Just pull over here so we can get out and touch the snow. Just everyone only get off on the right side"....this being so we don't get snowplowed by the oncoming traffic, should be your first indicator that this is NOT a good place to stop. If you're wondering? Yes we laughed at him :)
This doesn't even look real it's so beautiful.
I had to tag where our journey had led to.
Monkey #1's first sight of snow
I think she liked it :)
Family Photo Op
Grammie being funny! She didn't even want to get out of the car. Nan said..."This is why mom doesnt go camping with the family. She doesn't wanna get out of the car!"
Looks like a loving embrace, but we were just really using eachother for body heat. J/K
Monkey #2 begging someone to take her on in a snowball fight
Monkey #1's first feel of snow. Looks like bubbles in the bath but it was a shock when she realized it was cold instead.
She's oblivious
Bless the makers of the video ipod!!! And enormous headphones that a child cant take off and doesnt have to cram in their ears :)

7 comments:

Cara said...

Right now I'm wishing we had to drive a couple hours to see snow - ha ha! We've got more than we want just outside our door :) I could totally go for some Arizona weather right now!

tiffany knox said...

okay, drive s little further because I havent seen anything but snow for weeks! there is so much snow that the swings on the swingset are no longer visible!
leave me your email at tfrsnfr@yahoo.com if you havent already. I love your stories. i think your really funny!

Joey and Ashley said...

Oh my gosh! Denee! This looks so fun!!! Im jealous! What a cute little family too! : )

taytum said...

Okay, I quit. No more taking pictures for me. You are out shining me. Is there anything that you suck at? no really....

If you were going to go all the way to Payson, you should have come the rest of the way to SJ. We have snow here too!

The Van Fam said...

Ok you make me laugh! Your stories are hillarious bc I can totally hear your conversation as if I was there lol. Anyway AMAZING pics!

Heather Wells said...

So fun. Your photos are great!

Lois said...

How fun! Awesome photos! You should enter some into photog contests!