Journey: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

>e<

so, you all know we visited lake mountains 2 weeks ago... and the snow covered mountain, snow-topped trees and crisp mountain air still lingered in our memories all the while.. so, with those expectations in mind, we returned to Lake Mountains again today, with about twice the amount of people and had twice the amount of fun! =D

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting...

"Lake Mountains - The Return"

Its 8:00am and the doorbell rings.... oh no! I'm late again!! Debbie n family have arrived, and I'm not done packing yet! Joey was checking the cars to make sure everything was in order, gas, black oil, water, etc etc. I've got a pile of clothes that's our of the dryer, and I'm rummaging through that to find something for Ryan and Noel to wear. On the table top lies the loaf of bread that was supposed to be a tupperware full of sandwiches by now. Next to it were the plates of sausages, fishballs and square fishball-tofu thingys that Joey cooked earlier that morning... and yeah, as you can see, I said 'plates'.... I was supposed to have had them packed into containers too, but hey, I already admitted I was late... =)

after getting the food packed (Debbie helped out with the sandwiches) and into the car (which Joey actually did while I was running round wondering what else I had forgotten to pack), we were on our way! The scenic journey was relatively stress-free, as we cruised along, passing by farms with cows and sheep dotting the green pastures, and horses in their winter outfit... hehe... we didn't stop to take pictures, but its cute that only the horses seemed to need 'clothes' the other animals seemed fine... i guess winter is too cold for them somehow. we passed by yarra valley, with all its wineries, and healesville where the koala/kangaroo sanctuary is... and kept going on...

Ryan prayed for snow again... and I felt my heart sinking, coz I thought the weather report said it was gonna snow tomorrow, not today... hoping I was wrong... coz I didn't really take a good look at the weather forecast anyway, I was hoping and praying that God won't let him down... coz 2 weeks ago when we went up, he prayed for snow on the way up and it snowed once we reached the car park. then he prayed before we left, that it will snow one more time. and it did. so, I guess any parent reading this would know how I was feeling right then... sorta like, 'please let it snow, please let it snow, PLEAAAAASE let it snow!!!' lol

we stopped by Mystic Mountain Ski Hire to rent our gear and then continued on to Marysville to have our picnic lunch... yeah, its customary for us to ensure all tummies are happy before anything else =) here's Noel waiting for food...

and here's the rest of the party!

The picnic was supposed to be a short stopover, but we ended up having lots of fun as well. There was Joey and Caleb seemingly having a photo taking contest... including taking photos of each other taking photos... this one's from Joey's camera, so u know what's on Caleb's camera... hehe...

They both took pictures of this really long log, but I don't know what the story is... hopefully Caleb actually read the inscription on the metal plate attached to it...

and I ended up having a bird show for the kids... u see, there were these 2 ducks... and they were quite happy sitting around waiting for me to throw them some bread crumbs... but that wasn't really so interesting... then came this black bird... who snatched the bread out of the air before it landed in front of the ducks... poor ducks... not just coz they lost that small piece of bread, but because that black bird also completely stole my attention... and we had a fun time getting our little friend (friends, actually, as more and more black birds filled the tree above us) to catch the pieces that we threw up in the air

so, the kids joined in the bird-feeding frenzy and we were having a pretty good time til Joey reminded us that it was not the main objective of our trip... so, on we went, toward our destination Lake Mountain ....the trees were not covered in snow compared to our first trip there, which was a little disappointing... and we were quite worried when the signboards said the top carpark is full, and the staff directed us to the next nearest car park, which was about 2km from the mountain top... but everything worked out well, as they also provided free shuttle services to get us to the top!

the sled ride wasn't working, and we didn't think the kids were old enough to ski yet, so tobogganing we went!

tobogganing downhill is really soooo much fun, but trudging back uphill with THIS isn't as easy as it looks:

what's wrong with that? oh, nothing, except that the kids are really heavy and we had to pull them back uphill? *puff,puff* *pant,pant* oh well, it was all good =) err... besides the one time (later on) that I was too tired to pull Noel uphill and accidentally let go of the rope as we were reaching the top of the hill... so... he started sliding down the slope on his own, much to my horror... I leapt for the toboggan, and managed to hang on to a corner of it as we both continued sliding down for a short distance til some kind lady lent us a ... foot. hehe. she put her foot out in front of the toboggan, effectively stopping it long enough for me to pick myself off the snow and pull the toboggan back up. lol... no, I wasn't on the toboggan, i was sorta lying on the ground, flat out on the snow, hanging on to a toboggan that was going downhill... looking back, it was hilarious. thank goodness the guys didn't get a picture of that!

okay, the more fun things... look at this snowman!

would you believe me if I said we made it? =D

*sigh* no, we didn't.... but Joey did make a snowduck...

then got quite carried away with his natural refrigerator

while the kids were making snowballs

and bigger snowballs...

and now that we've gone far enough from that impressive snowman picture, here's our little one sitting beside the snowduck =)

the carrot was compliments of Ryan.... I don't really know where he got it from, but Joey said someone else's snowman got smashed and so, that spare part became available. I was quite thrilled to see it though... apparently a little too thrilled, as Ryan happily ran off again and returned with another 3 carrots.... err....

the highlight of the trip, for us at least, was that it SNOWED! and it snowed even more heavily than it did 2 weeks ago. In fact, it snowed so much, it was absolutely beautiful, like something out of a movie or something... and the first thing I could think of was, 'Thank You, Lord!!!!'.... Ryan on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all... he was happy, and he started adding extra snow on to daddy

but we reallllllly so happy bout the snow shower. Its almost like we were out in the rain, but not getting wet =)

okay, I'm really sleepy now, and I think I'm writing too long for a blog... but let me begin my ending with pictures of the kids making a snow angel...