Hunting Christmas Trees

This year we made the trek to Manti to hunt our own Christmas tree.  We haven't gone in a few years and to be honest I wasn't excited about going this year.  Not because I don't like going, but because I heard it was suppose to snow all day Saturday and part of the day Sunday.  I really wasn't looking forward to hauling kids up on the mountain in a snowstorm! 

We got to Manti late Friday night (like 11 pm kind of late).  We didn't leave until around six or so and once we hit Ephraim we stopped at Walmart because only 2 of the kids had gloves and 2 of them had boots so we had to make sure we had everything in case we hauled them up the mountain with us on Saturday.

We didn't head out until 11 am to go find trees.  Travis and I and Jamie and Robbie all wanted to leave to go up before 10.  No such luck!  We are always waiting on someone!  By the time we finally headed up the mountain it had started to snow and it was a whopping 14 degrees outside.

We didn't go too far up the mountain until we pulled off to park the vehicles and drive the four wheelers.  Yes, you read that right.  A snowstorm, 14 degrees and we are on four wheelers.  Only with the Bowns!

Lucky for me I had Travis to use as a windbreaker!  This was my view when Trav got off to stretch!

This is Travis waiting out in the road to flag down his parents to show them where we turned off the road.

Here they come

We found a tree first and Travis got to work cutting it down.

We found a second tree (for his absentee brother) as well.

Us with one of the trees we killed

This was my view on the way down the mountain

Tonight we got home from Manti and Travis put the lights on the tree before he has to head back to work in the morning.  The kids helped me decorate it.  It's funny because all the ornaments I've bought are snowmen.  We have to put all the ornaments the kids have made on it first and then we can add the ones I've bought.  I've decided I'm not so picky anymore - I like their little handmade ones!