The Friday before Isaiah's 11th birthday, our family made another trip to the snow to celebrate the occasion, as Sunday was the actual date and we would be at church.
Once we got up to Idyllwild, we began to think about staying the night there, (Mama is famous for last minute adventures!) since we were enjoying ourselves so much. The Lord provided the perfect cabin for our size family. It was even more of a praise because the renters usually require a 2 night stay to rent a cabin on the weekend. Thank the Lord for His provision! We had a wonderful weekend there, sledding, playing in the snow and retreating back to our warm little cabin at night.:)
We arrived at the cabin, Friday afternoon. It was nice and cold with plenty of snow around!
Our "street" for the weekend:)
Caytlin and Isaiah enjoying the balcony view
Inside, Mama and I were unpacking, so to speak. Although we hadn't brought clothes to stay the night, most everyone had brought extra clothes for after our sledding adventures. This worked out well because people had something to change into the next day. We did use the oven however to dry our socks!
Once the unpacking was all done, Mama dropped us kids off at a spot to sled while she went into town to buy groceries. The spot we were allowed to sled on, did not have very many big hills but I found a good sized one for the little ones. It was so much fun to hear them squealing and laughing as they went down!
The boys discovered a good sized and
fairly steep slope which we used to sled on for most of the afternoon.
Ryan and I had a system going! Once the person was seated, I would give a push and down they went! Ryan had the
fun job of making sure no one ran into anything and made it all in one piece.
The snow was not as dry as it had been last time and so it made the sledding more work but, it was still a lot
of fun. 
We finished with a snack of pretzels before we began the trek up the slope.
At the top of the hill, I stopped everyone for a group shot. They were all very good sports and smiled, despite being cold, and tired. (That's
Natey on the end, with the scarf. He was missing his hat and his head got cold.:) Mama arrived just as I took this. It was perfect timing, thank the Lord! We happily piled into the van ready for the warm cabin and dinner.
Back at the cabin, after taking hot showers and changing into dry clothes, Mama made us a delicious dinner of meat and potatoes with her yummy cheese sauce and we all had hot cups of black tea to keep us nice and warm.
Timothy and Ryan looking at a book together.
Daniel was very kind and helped us ladies with the dishes. We had a great conversation and it was really good just to be together.:) After the work was done, Mama and the boys went to bed
upstairse and we girls slept downstairs in the smaller bedroom.
A group shot, minus Mama:)
The next morning we woke up and after a very big breakfast. We packed up the van to leave, and cleaned the cabin. At eleven o'clock, we checked out and took a nice scenic drive through the town of
Idyllwild. We had planned to go hiking before we headed back home but, it turned out, the place we had chosen required a hiking pass.
We had a wonderful time! It was neat to see how the Lord worked things out the way He did and as always it was perfect! The only sad part of the trip was that Daddy never made it to the cabin to be with us. He had planned to drive up after work but, when he tried to call us to locate the cabin, both my cell phone and Ryan's were out of range. We couldn't call him using the cabin phone because it only made local calls.
On the way home, we stopped by Oma's to have dinner and visit with her. We were all quite hungry and it was so nice to sit down and relax! We celebrated Isaiah's birthday with pizza and ice cream. We left shortly after that, as we had much to do to prepare for Sunday. We got home safely but, very tired.:)
We were very thankful to the Lord for such a fun trip and we are planning to go again sometime! It is neat to see how the Lord opens the perfect doors at the right time. This is something our family has wanted to do for a long time and it was neat to see how even though we weren't planning on it, the Lord worked it out so well.:)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Our "street" for the weekend:)
Caytlin and Isaiah enjoying the balcony view
Inside, Mama and I were unpacking, so to speak. Although we hadn't brought clothes to stay the night, most everyone had brought extra clothes for after our sledding adventures. This worked out well because people had something to change into the next day. We did use the oven however to dry our socks!
Once the unpacking was all done, Mama dropped us kids off at a spot to sled while she went into town to buy groceries. The spot we were allowed to sled on, did not have very many big hills but I found a good sized one for the little ones. It was so much fun to hear them squealing and laughing as they went down!
The boys discovered a good sized and fairly steep slope which we used to sled on for most of the afternoon.
Ryan and I had a system going! Once the person was seated, I would give a push and down they went! Ryan had the fun job of making sure no one ran into anything and made it all in one piece. 
The snow was not as dry as it had been last time and so it made the sledding more work but, it was still a lot of fun. 
At the top of the hill, I stopped everyone for a group shot. They were all very good sports and smiled, despite being cold, and tired. (That's Natey on the end, with the scarf. He was missing his hat and his head got cold.:) Mama arrived just as I took this. It was perfect timing, thank the Lord! We happily piled into the van ready for the warm cabin and dinner.
Back at the cabin, after taking hot showers and changing into dry clothes, Mama made us a delicious dinner of meat and potatoes with her yummy cheese sauce and we all had hot cups of black tea to keep us nice and warm.
Timothy and Ryan looking at a book together.
Daniel was very kind and helped us ladies with the dishes. We had a great conversation and it was really good just to be together.:) After the work was done, Mama and the boys went to bed upstairse and we girls slept downstairs in the smaller bedroom.
