Mary's Peak

Back on New Year's Day we decided that after two and a half years of living in Corvallis it was about time we ventured up to Mary's Peak. I had memories from my childhood of sledding up there, and so many people hike up there in the summer. It was a blue skies day, so Josh and I thought it would be fun to do a simple winters hike in the snow and enjoy the view from up there with the kids.

We listened to Weird Al on the drive up (our kids' favorite these days) and enjoyed the scenery while singing along to "Crazy Al" as Ben calls him. 

Once we were close to the top traffic stopped. We rolled down the window and asked people on the side of the road what was up. They said there was a bad icy patch up ahead and a lot of people didn't have their chains. We had ours, but one guy told us it wasn't worth trying to get through. So we pulled over and decided to just do a short hike in the snowy areas around us. The kids had a great time and were happy to just have some snow to play in for an hour. We'll have to head up there again this summer for a hike, and maybe try for snow again next year. :)

There was so much precious laughter...

At one point I looked over at Ben and he was filling his hat with snow. 

And then he put it on. ;) I love his adventurous spirit.