Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree..

So, the very fist year we were married, Deke and I started a tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree. Every year we drive to (ironically) Christmas Meadows, hike around til' we find the one, saw it down, and hall it out. This year Andi and her fiance Aaron joined us. We loved having the company! With each year, new adventures and memories are formed and this year didn't fail to disappoint. To start out, the little corner of Utah/Wyoming we ventured to had had some sort of severe ice storm. It was crazy! I had never seen anything like it. For about 5 miles the roads were seriously one huge sheet of black ice. Traffic was backed up forever and there were wrecks all over the place! This camper was one of the tragedies of the day: The road wasn't the only thing covered in ice. Every single plant, twig, tree, and rock had a sheet of ice covering it. Even the snow had a layer of the crunchy stuff. It was the darndest thing. If you look close enough you can see the layer of ice on the snow cracking. Eventually we made it safely to the area we set out for. It was time to find the perfect tree! We hiked over the river.. Through the woods.. And found the perfect tree right on the bank of the picturesque little river. After sawing it down, the men had a brilliant idea to tie a rope to the trees, throw the rope over the river, hike over the river upstream, go back down and find the rope and pull the trees across the river (2 trees were tied together with the same rope). It actually worked pretty well despite the trees floating downstream a little ways.



The men being manly (or would it be menly?) holding the fruits of their labor: A man and his truck. I finally have a good picture of the truck. Wahoo! This beauty got us everywhere we needed to go through ice and snow. That night, we got the tree set up and lights on followed by dinner at Texas Roadhouse and a movie night with the Polar Express. Not a better way to usher in Christmas if you ask me.