Black Diamond Camps - Mt. Rainier!

On Sunday, February 25th we went up to Mt. Rainier to take part in a free Family Adventure Day that was put on by Black Diamond Camps! 

Just before going to church Owen was hugging me in the kitchen and I wanted Michael to take a picture to document his height up against me. He's said a few times that he hopes he doesn't grow anymore because he loves that he fits right where he does so he can lay his head on my "pillows". 

Then I thought it would be fun to do the same with the other kiddos. Jackson's getting up there too! 

Ella is so excited because according to the doctor she could be anywhere from 

5' 3" up to 5' 5". 

I'm 5' 3 3/4" so she's is hoping that she's going to be taller than me! 

Zeke Man has quite a ways to go! Cute little shrimpo! 

Then the kids wanted pictures with Daddy too! 

Precious Daddy's girl! 

My big guys! 

Then Owen had to have a picture of him and Charlie! 

After first service we left and started heading toward the mountain. Our first stop was in Buckley at Wendy's for lunch. 

We totally threw the kids off by going to Wendy's instead of McD's. I just get SO tired of McD's!!! They did eat lunch though so that's good. They didn't like Wendy's Sweet & Sour sauce though! 

Michael got a frosty with his meal to dip his fries in and of course the kids wanted one too. After they were finished with their lunch he went and got 2 small frosties and the kids shared them. 

Ella was all obsessed about this old brick phone of mine that she found. She was hauling that thing everywhere for a while. I haven't seen it in a long time so she  might have lost it up at the mountain. 

Big cheesy grin! Oh and if you've been wondering what happened to Owen's glasses...they broke. He was swinging them around and one of the side pieces broke off. Michael tried to glue them, but that wasn't successful. It hadn't quite been a year since he got them so insurance wouldn't pay for another pair so soon. He has an appt on Saturday, April 14th so he'll have a new pair soon enough. Thankfully his eyes aren't horrible so he can make due without them. He still thinks he doesn't need glasses so we shall see what the doctor says. Ella also has an appt on that same day as well. 

My sweet Zeke Russell! 

He is all about Daddy right now! 

My precious Ella Grace! 

After eating lunch we drove over to a park and ride and parked in the back so we weren't super visible from the main road. That's where we all changed into our snow clothes. The kids weren't so sure about changing in the van, but they got over it. 

Once we were on our way it wasn't long and it was snowing. 

This is where I began to get a little nervous. First off we don't have studded tires and we didn't even buy chains! 

Really snowy!!! It was beautiful though! 

I had my cellphone in the holder thing I used when the kids and I drove to Wyoming last year. It had the directions up on it. I just changed the camera to selfie mode so we could all be in the picture! 

When we got to the camp we had to register...I had already filled out the waiver forms for all of us online so it was a super easy process to check in. 

This whole Adventure Day was put on my Black Diamond Camps....previous known as Camp Berachah. They do these Adventure Days a few time a year, but this was the first one they had up at Mount Rainier. Most of them are held at the camp grounds in Black Diamond. The fun things that were available were....tubing, snowman making, sugar cookie decorating, rock wall and hot cocoa. They were going to have archery tag, but they had to cancel that part of it. Seriously though even if was just a field with snow my kids would have been happy! 

After we checked in, Michael went to park the van and the kids and I went to the bathroom. Once we found Michael....we took so long in the bathroom he thought we would already be at the tubing hill....hello snow clothes...we were all off to find the tubing hill. 

Michael, Owen, Jack, Me and yes Zeke....all went on the tubing hill. Ella was the only one that wasn't interested in it. 

At first we thought that Michael would be able to hold onto Zeke and ride with him, but that was against the rules. I was so sure that Zeke wasn't going to have any of that, but he was so ready to go. 

Such a brave kiddo! 

Then it was Michael's turn. I can see why they wouldn't want him to hold Zeke...he barely sunk down into the tube at all so it would have been hard to hang onto the tube and a child. 

There he goes! 

Then it was my turn! I have not gone tubing since youth winter camp years and YEARS ago. Of course I ended up going down back first and it felt like I was never going to get to the bottom. Yep....I was all good after that. 

Ella Grace had just been having fun with friends from church that came up too. She was loving all that fluffy snow! 

I wasn't able to get over to the tubing hill fast enough to get picture of Owen and Jack going down, but I did get Owen once he got off the tube. He looks so grown up here! 

Zeke wanted to go again! Poor kid is so short he literally folds right in half and can't see anything! 

This is him trying to get out! Hahahaha! He loved it though! 

Zeke playing dead in the snow! 

It's hard to see, but the smoother part of the snow in the top portion of the picture is a snow Bumbo that Michael made for himself to sit in. If you are a parent you know exactly what a Bumbo is. I thought this was hilarious! 

Sittin' in his Bumbo! 

Owen covered in snow! 

This Adventure Day was originally schedule for January 25th, but they had to postpone it because there was zero snow! The weather was perfect the day of. It was just at that temperature where it was snowing, but it doesn't really feel like it's cold enough to snow. There wasn't any wind so the snow was falling gently to the ground. We were there a totally of 3 hours and I think it snowed around 4-6 inches in that time. 

Hurry and take the picture Mom...I'm cold!!! 

Other than tubing and playing in the big field of snow, we also hung out in the lodge and drank hot cocoa and ate fresh baked sugar cookies. Zeke and I also went swinging and had so much fun jumping off the swings into the fluffy snow! 

There was a little tense moment when we were trying to leave the camp parking lot and the van would not go. It was the traction control keeping us from being able to gun it. I had to get out and try to push and there was another guy helping. We were confused because our back tires weren't moving and we were told that our Honda Odyssey was all-wheel drive. Yeah we were lied too and didn't check it out for ourselves. This made Michael a little upset. In fact we chose not to get the Chrysler Town and Country with the Stow and Go seats because it didn't have all-wheel drive. Oh well....live and learn right. 

Later on we figured out we should have turned off out VSA (Vehicle Stability Assist). I'm interested how well the van would have done with that disabled. We'll have to see another time. After a couple minutes Michael ended up having me get in the driver seat and it was ridiculous trying to steer in the snow. The van was just going wherever it wanted to. Once it finally got traction I just started going down the road. I yelled out the window to see if Michael wanted me to stop, but I didn't hear him say anything. I was afraid to stop and have it get stuck again so I just kept slowly going down the long road that led out to the main hwy. Michael was running to catch up, but I still didn't think he wanted me to stop. I did eventually stop so he could get in. He had actually told me to stop, but I didn't hear him. It was funny in hindsight....poor guy had to run in the snow for about a quarter of a mile. Oops! 

Once we got to the main hwy everything was fine and we were on our way. It was a super fun family day and we can't wait to take part in more Black Diamond Camps Family Adventure Days! 

And to top it off Michael was chosen by Charlie that night while we were watching TV.