Liberty Mountain Snow Tubing

If anyone out there wonders why so many people live in Washington DC when there is so much traffic, well, the answer is simple - this place is amazing. Just read my blog a little bit. See all the things we do here. You might begin to understand why the traffic is sooooooo not an issue. It. Is. Worth. It. {Unless Mike is taking too long to get home for dinner}

Last weekend, we enjoyed just another amazing benefit to our area - the nearby mountains. A few friends of ours discovered that if your kiddos are too young for skiing, Liberty Mountain Resort, about an hour and a half drive away, has a giant snow tubing hill!

I've never been to a ski mountain/ski resort/snow tube hill ever. I don't know how to ski. I don't even know what to wear when you just go to snow tube. Do the gloves get tucked inside the jacket or does the jacket get tucked into the gloves? What do you wear under ski pants - pajamas? I am a southern girl born and raised in North Carolina. If you're from NC, then you know, there are mountains to the west and beach to the east. We were the kind of family who headed east. And on the rare occasions when it snowed in my hometown, my mom always sent us to play outside in tennis shoes with plastic baggies on our feet in between layers of socks. I was a bit unprepared for a day in the snow.

Luckily, I married a man from Michigan with a good deal of snow-sense and my BFF is from Indiana and accompanied me for an emergency shopping trip. Once we had the basics, we were ready to go! I packed up my "little" DSLR and picked out some great lenses I thought I'd need for this specific kind of adventure. Once we got to the mountain and I pulled out my camera bag, everyone made fun of me asking how the heck I was going to carry my camera on the mountain. It apparently was an instagram day!

We went with our good friends, the Allens (Jenny - the redhead in the black hat) and the Davises (Keri - the blonde in the pink hat), and all the kiddos and husbands that went with it!

My kids Charlie thinks snow is this really amazing and special thing. I think this has to do with the majority of his life being lived in Southeast Texas and being deprived of the white powdery goodness. It had snowed about an inch the day before we went tubbing and Charlie had played outside in it for three whole hours. There was even more snow up on the mountain and he was so happy. He kept wandering off from us to pick up a handful to throw or to climb a pile of ice.

Keri and I both have toddlers so we took the littles to the kiddie hill to play while the dads took the bigger kids down the main hill. Then, the plan was to switch half way through. Henry used to hate everything but he has had a pretty good run lately with liking most things we do. Well, that streak had come to an abrupt end. He hated it. He started crying the second I put him in the tube. He didn't want to go down the hill. He kept his mitten hands over his eyes and refused to look at anything. And I was that mean mom who pulled the squirming, crying toddler up the hill and pushed him down anyway.

I eventually just gave up and took the monster into the lodge and fed him cookies and pretzels while sitting next to the fireplace. To give the kid some credit, I couldn't find his snow boots before we left and the rental boots I was planning on using did not come in baby size. His little feet had gotten really cold in his tennis shoes. Southern Mom. Poor kid.

While I sat in the lodge with monster crabby-pants, Mike took C down the big hill. I was SURE that C was going to freak out and refuse to go down the hill and Mike would have to force him and then he'd cry and be too scared to go again -- based on the 50,000 questions on the drive up about how big the mountain was going to be. But Mike said he had no problems. He loved it. {tears} Big kid. So proud.

AND THEN IT WAS MY TURN TO PLAY WITH C!!! Oh, my sweet big kid!! It's so fun to hang out with you! We had so much fun talking about everything as we waited in line to go down the hill. You're so funny and I love every single thought that goes through your head.

On my first ride up the lift, it broke and I had to start hauling our tubes up a giant hill! Fastest way to find out how out-of-shape you are? Giant hills.

But the ride was worth the huffing and puffing!! Charlie had to convince me it wasn't scary. It looked REALLY high and REALLY fast to me! But it was so much fun - after I asked the teenager at the top if there was a way to walk down and he said the only way down was the tube...!

I leave days like these thinking of how completely and totally blessed I am. I'm a lucky woman to have such amazing friends and a happy family. Writing these blogs is a constant reminder of all the many wonderful moments and people in my life.