Not Meant To Be??

Every year we go into the forest and cut our Christmas tree.

We have done this for years & years and have always had a great time.

This year, however, we've had nothing but trouble.

Last weekend we loaded up and drove the hour to Springerville to get our permit and the office was closed. (It's always been open until noon on Saturday.)

So we drove back around to Show Low to a sporting goods store my friend said she got hers at.

They were out of permits.

Hungery, disappointed, & not wanting to steal a tree we headed home.

My Mom, the kids, & I drove back to Springerville during the week to get a permit so we'd be ready this weekend. As we were walking into the office I noticed a sign saying,

"We will be open from 9 to noon this Saturday."

I guess we were a week early!

So yesterday after church with premits in hand we drove to our favorite spot.

Not far off the highway we helped a lady and her kids who were stuck.

We laughed at how one could get stuck on the snow-packed dirt road and proceeded on.

Not too much farther up the road we (our Suburban & my Dad's truck) became firmly stuck in a snow drift covering a low spot on the road. Thank goodness for Karma. Two trucks came along not too long after and came to help us.

The next 4 1/2 hours look something like this.

The guys were able to get my Dad's truck unstuck but he was unable to pull us out.

One of the other trucks was able to pull us to the other side of the drifts but then while trying to blaze a path thru managed to get themselves stuck in the same spot we were.

Oh, did I mention the 30-40 mph winds?

Thankfully the kids were very good the whole time we were stuck.

They finally got too bored and we had to start a movie.
Good thing we had one with us.

In the end the other 2 trucks called someone to pick them up and we loaded into my Dad's truck. That makes it sound too easy. We got the kids all bundled up (with groans about how their movie wasn't over yet), loaded up all our supplies, & had my Dad walk over to us. Then my Dad & Dale each carried a boy, I carried Dot (wrapped in a blanket) & Samantha had to carry my purse. We walked across the long snow drift in a blizzard (because of course it started to snow) and then loaded into my Dad's truck. We were able to drive out and get home safe.

Dale and some of the guys from the shop just left to drive back up there to meet the guys from the other 2 trucks to try & dig out the abandoned vehicles.

So in the end we are starting to wonder if maybe we aren't meant to have Christmas trees.

The Blizzard.