Christmas Tree Hunting in the Mountains

Our wonderful friends invited us to go hunting for Christmas trees with them this year.  The day after Thanksgiving we headed up to the National Forest to find our perfect Christmas trees to cut down. The drive up to the mountains was gorgeous, and the scenery when we parked was...well, just look at it.  It's breathtaking and now I'm not sure we can ever get a Christmas tree another way.  Sheesh.  

 

We set off looking (and laughing).  

Many trees were carefully looked over to see if they were the perfect fit for each home.  Some were too tall.  Some were lopsided.  Some were tiny.  Some had double trunks.  

 

We tromped along with the kids throwing snowballs at everyone and making tons of noise.  But when you are in the middle of nowhere you don't have to constantly tell them to quiet down because, there's no one there to be bothered.  

 

Megan and I snapped all sorts of pictures and together we have quiet the assortment of fun pictures of the joint-family excursion to find our Christmas trees.  

 

Megan's brother was visiting for Thanksgiving, so he was there too.  We all had a lot of fun trying to convince him that moving out to Colorado is really in his best interests.  And he didn't really disagree, so hopefully we'll get another fun Colorado resident before long.  ;)  

Aren't they cute?

And silly? We love them.  

There's us with the tree we finally decided on.  

It's the one in the middle of those three that we're standing by. Megan snapped a cute shot of the whole family with our tree (the girls named it Pier after Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, a holy man who loved hiking and the great outdoors.  Perfect.).  

 

We cut down trees, the guys tried to throw snowballs and hit the top of that weird looking tree in the pictures below, we dragged/carried trees to the car, the trees were strapped onto our friends' car, and eventually we drove back toward home.  

 

 

  And after we got home, the guys helped set up the trees in both homes and then we all went over to the Hjelmstad's for Thanksgiving leftovers.  The kids watched The Polar Express and the adults played a fun board game and laughed over drinks.  What a fun day spent with wonderful people whom we are blessed to call friends.    

 

There was a lot of sleeping on the ride home.  Car naps for the win today.  

Thanks again for inviting us, Hjelmstads!  Hope to make this a new tradition.  What joy to spend time together, laughing and making memories to last a lifetime.