We had a mish mash of dinner on Sunday night with leftover pizza and two microwave meals for Chris and I. Add in some licorice, popcorn, cookies, apples, blueberries and pumpkin donuts and I don't believe any one went hungry. Monday morning we ate at "Egg and I" for quite a great breakfast. Chris' pancake was the size of a dinner plate and Misha's and Kristen's weren't much smaller. Amy had waffles, and I had a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, granola and a fruit cup. I declined the toast. It was filling, but since we only brought power bars for hiking, we told the girls to eat up.
After breakfast we drove back to the hotel to pack up our stuff and head further up the mountain. The snowflakes were randomly falling but picked up in intensity as we neared Bear Lake. The road turned from completely dry to snow covered--nice to have four-wheel drive now for times like this. The parking lot at Bear Lake, usually crowded with tourists, was only about 1/3 full. We began to pull on our snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, sunglasses and scarfs. With all that gear, the cold was manageable and only my face felt the chill.
We walked toward the lake which was frozen over and ventured out on to the ice.
Kristen was pretty nervous about walking on it, and clutched my hand until we reached the other side of the lake. At that point, she realized she wasn't going to fall into water and promptly turned around to go back and make snow angels on the ice.
The girls found a few places for sliding down the hillside as we made our way around the lake. It was snowing quite a lot, and though Chris and I had expected many complaints, we didn't hear a single one. We were all about making memories, and this day was perfect for it.
After completing our trip around, Chris returned to the car to drive down to the Alberta Falls parking lot, and the girls and I started the one-mile hike to the trail head. We didn't want to have to climb back up to Bear Lake after hiking to the falls. We met up with Chris in no time and were on our way. Kristen was beginning to lose a little steam, but she still managed to beat her sisters and pass a bunch of boys. It helped that I grabbed on to the back of her jacket and propelled her along.
Alberta Falls were definitely different in the winter. Chris and I had snowshoed to them a couple of years ago, but this was a first for the girls. Usually you can hear the falls as you get closer, but they were completely frozen over. In fact, after lunch we spent most of our time playing in the snow and jumping off rocks whilst standing mid-stream.
Lunch was interesting. We had a little bread, leftover licorice and power bars. Once we sat down, a small chipmunk came out of the trees and raced toward us. It had no fear, and raced around our legs until it climbed up on to Chris. He may or may not have fed it bread. The chipmunk was promptly named "Jaws" and kept us all entertained.
Crazy girl! You don't win snowball fights with your dad.
If you happen to hike to Alberta Falls in the next day or so, and if someone hasn't ruined it, you will see the Kline family snow fort sitting in the middle of the falls. I don't think we have ever played in the snow together like that, and it was great. Throughout the day, the girls had so much fun they kept asking if we could make this an annual tradition.
Chris had to be back home to leave for the airport at three pm, so we left the falls after completing our snow fort. Except for having to following insanely slow people down the mountain, our drive home was uneventful.