Snow Play Area

Great weekend at Mt. Rainier! Amazing to live so close to such amazing sights!


Got off to a strong start on Friday where we served Franklin some hot cocoa in these great cups in our cabin at Stone Creek Lodge:


Will he like it?

Yes indeed!

Still haven't talked Franklin into sleeping late on weekends, but at least we had this view to greet us in the early morning:


Not sure if it was the cold or the excitement of travel, but he sure worked up an appetite:

Finished the whole kids' pancake breakfast at the National Park Inn... and then demanded some of "dad's pancakes please!" :)

(Ha! I just realized that website has the menus: feel free to print out the kids' breakfast menu and reenact the morning—just be sure you have plenty pancakes on hand!)

After we (finally!) finished eating, we drove on up the mountain. Pretty snowy and icy this time of year, though, and given the winter weather rules at the park, we first picked up a set of tire chains (!). Not sure if I'm more proud of us for getting them on the car so easily, or more amazed that it took us seven years in Washington state before we actually had to do that!

Pretty chilly up at Paradise (the car's thermometer said 19ºF!), so we didn't do much other than take the picture up top, watch a couple of runs on the sledding hill, grab a quick snack, and run around the gift shop.

Okay, just to be clear, it was really Franklin's idea to _run_ in the gift shop. But I have to hand it to him: even at that speed, we made some good finds, including an adorable stuffed marmot. Emily's been looking for something like that for years; so glad we finally spotted one!

Anyway, a great day for more cocoa by the fire!

What I like best about this photo is the look on Emily's face as she watches to see if Franklin is actually going to dip the basketball toy Madhu gave him (thanks again!) into his cocoa...

I definitely can't match the exterior cabin photos I posted the other day, but here's my attempt:


The woman who runs Stone Creek Lodge was great, and even lent us a sled to pull Franklin on. Took him a minute to get used to it, but eventually he was giggling and saying "again! again!" Awesome. No photos, alas, but we did get a couple of videos of him with snowballs:


This one is too dark to see much, but I love how it sounds:


And then of course more warming up by the fire:

Roar!

One more breakfast at the National Park Inn, and then we went outside for some fun:


It's just under a mile, and pretty tame, but the Trail of the Shadows seemed like the perfect short snowy hike:




All right, well, looks like it's Monday again...

Thanks for an awesome weekend, Emily and Franklin!