Over The River and Through The Woods To Grandma's Attic We Go!

We went over the river and through the woods to my mom's house and spent Christmas with her - really, there are real signs that tell you you are traveling on the Over The River And Through The Woods Trail over the Santaim and Tombstone Passes on Highway 20! What a winter wonderland adventure....the snowy white "trail" below is the highway. Just gorgeous.

As bad as it looks, we actually made great time and our car handles really well. Jim even tried to make the car slip and slide and it was hard to get it to do so, plus he is an amazing driver in the snow. And just in case you've never driven in such weather, her is a little video of our snowy winter roller coaster ride:




Years ago, before we had kids, my mom bought the cutest little old house in Albany and we rented it from her and started our family there. Then when we bought our first house and moved out, she moved right in! It has been so great being able to go back and visit our old home where we started our family whenever we want - how often do you get to go back to the old homes you used to live in and see what they look like now?! Anyway, while we lived there Jim was crawling around the attic and found a "secret" little room that we always thought was really cool...there were old, old beer bottles and handwritten notes back there and everything. Now, the boys are old enough to crawl back there and see it too and it got us talking about how when you're a little kid everything in your memories seem so much BIGGER and more of an EXCITING MYSTERY than they are when you go back to visit them as an adult. So, we had to take pictures of the secret attic room an how to get there for the boys when they're older....Here we go - first you go upstairs...

Then you go to the back of Grandma's wardrobe and through the little door....much like the Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, isn't it?Once you are though the door in Grandma's wardrobe, you come crawling down that little tunnel looking area on the right for about 10 or 15 feet, and then around the corner to the secret room on the left...and this is the ONLY way to get there...
Ooh! Spooky! HAHA! Too bad there isn't yet another door to crawl through! I'm so sure that all children love finding cool little secret places like this, how lucky that it's in Grandma's house for them to explore :)
We had such a fun Christmas this year, my mom is wanting to move to Bend in the near future and this may have been the last time we got to have Christmas at her house, our old house, so it was very special....even though Brayden was sick with a tummy ache the whole time and ended up throwing up a couple of times all over the floor the day we went home, but it wouldn't be Christmas if somebody wasn't sick, right? We hope your Christmas was just as good :)