Winter Tree Hunt

Happy December, folks!

This past weekend, recovering from the delicious food comas from Thanksgiving, Mr. K and I went to get our Christmas tree with some friends in the mountains.

Did I mention it frosted that day?

Of course the drive up to the mountains was like entering a magical world. Be prepared to enter the winter wonderland.
God is so good.

We just missed the icy roads from the night before. Yet seeing these guys on the hairpin turns eased my mind.

Rock on, sanders and plowers.

But seriously. Look at that fog with the frosted trees.

Just beautiful.

As Mrs. C said, "It looks like Narnia!"
Indeed it did. I half expected Mr. Tumnus to pop out from behind a tree.
Perhaps this one?

Or to see the Badgers and the rest having their party in the midst of the snow.

Enter the frostline

From here up, we saw nothing but icing on trees.

It may be that I was quite hungry, for all I could think of was icing on gingerbread.

Come to think of it, I should make some gingerbread.
But that requires the use of a really good wooden spoon.

One of my favorite shots

Then again...I do have a mixer and a dough hook. Hmmm...Methinks I shall do it.
Anyway, back to the drive.

Of course, this shot is just as pretty as a few of my faves.

 I love trees and snow.

Another favorite shot

With the scenery that's around here, it's hard to choose between the photos.

And then we stopped off at the Valles Caldera.
This next shot is what I call the cover of a music cd shot.

And then we had to get a shot.

From there I could get more shots of trees and snow.
Which...you know...I did.
(You know you love it too)

It's so pretty 

 Oh baby.

And the best part is knowing this is where they shot some of Little House on the Prairie.

I can imagine it.

So then we were off again.

 And before we knew it, we made it to the spot we could start looking for trees.
So glad the C family had their Jeep to drive up the mountain. Our Ford Focus would not have made it.

A few times we stepped out and surveyed the trees.

A few duds. But then...

Ahhh. The sweet spot. But the trees had to wait. We needed lunch. A quick bite and some hot chocolate later, we were ready to head out.

Mrs. C is putting saws in Mr. K's backpack here. Very excited to search the trees.

After a bit of searching, we found a tree that was a possibility. Much better than last year's tree.
But it was a little short.

The one in front.

So I decided to take a pic of the place it was in case we wanted to come back to it.

So we traversed a couple fields and scaled some craggy areas.

I heard our friends and climbed the ledge to see them getting their tree.

There are three people there. Mrs. C is currently chopping it down.

Closer look.

But I had to go back and find Mr. K. He'd disappeared.

And we decided we'd rather a fuller shorter tree than a scraggly one. And so decided that the first tree was the best.

Then we loaded up.

Oh yeah. Mrs. C had a fun time coming down the mountain with her tree.

Yay jeans!

Selfies!

Smile Mr. K!

The Jeep got a new hood ornament too...temporarily that is.

Then it was time to hit the road home.

"On the road again..."

Goodbye Narnia!

Hello Mountains!

Black and white makes snowy pictures better.

Don't you agree?

But as we stopped to say goodbye, we discovered the best sight of all: Coyotes.

He's there, running from the loud Jeep.

Closer inspection yielded two lovely coyotes.

And if you look closely, you can see the head of one as they went over the hill.

It was the highlight to our trip.

Trees for both our homes, photos of nature that make my heart sing, and then two coyotes.

I love this land.

Until next time,
Bisous!