Snow

well world, it has finally happened. i have conformed to blogging. the thing is, there are two people who i look up to and aspire with my whole heart. i always try to dress like them, talk like them, eat like them, and buy the same kind of makeup as them. so now that i've found out that my roommates taylor chambers and allie lundberg have blogs, i must start one also.

i am probably going to do the thirty days of blogging thing that allie did. but not now. right now i am going to talk about a love-hate relationship of mine (i have many). im going to talk about snow. no, not the building i live in, although snow hall and i have a very love-hate relationship also.

anywho. i've been complaining about snow for weeks. it just kind of got to that point where you're sick of walking around campus while its snowing, you're sick of all your winter clothes, sick of not seeing the grass or the sun, sick of having to dig your car out for five minutes before driving anywhere, just so sick of winter! the other day it was coming down hard as i agitatedly (<real word..?) walked to class. i was keeping my head down against the cold and focusing on taking careful steps so i wouldn't slip, when i glanced up and really looked at the snowflakes falling everywhere and realized...it was really pretty. so i decided at that profound moment...snow won't be here forever, spring is just around the corner. if it was up to me, it would already be here. but since i have no say in the matter, i'm going to appreciate the snow while it's here. and i figure, if i was to move away to somewhere tropical and miss a couple of utah winters, i would really miss this fluffy white cold stuff that i curse so often. little did i know at that time that snow was exactly what i needed.

snow and my family. this weekend i went on our annual cabin trip with my dad's family. i loved everything about my weekend. everything. the two and a half hour drive with six of us and all our luggage packed tight in my dad's car. staying up late talking about ghost stories with my cousin aj. my grandpa's shout of "revalee, revalee!" at 7 am, waking everyone up. being helped by a bunch of boy scouts after getting the snowmobile stuck. building a snowman with my cousin's kids. the excessive eating. playing dominos with my grandparents. getting pissed after my brothers hit me in the face with a snowball six times. and most of all...the snowcave.

my cousin jen recruited a "team" together to build a snowcave. after they had piled the snow and dug out an entrance, i joined jen and my sister in digging out the snow cave. we laughed and talked and bonded while we dug. although we are three STRONG, TOUGH women, the time came that we needed a man. so along came my brother in law B.A. (those are his real initials), and my cousin michael to help us out. BA spent all his time in the snowcave digging it out and shaping the inside while the rest of us shoveled out all the excess snow he was throwing near the entrance. it was a blast. seriously. then i was told to kneel in the cave and shovel out BA's excess snow in there. it went well, but once my arms started getting tired and i realized i had no chance of keeping up with beau's speedy shoveling, i started thinking to myself, "wait...what's so great about a snowcave? why are we doing this? it really isn't even fun..." i have those moments a lot, when i'm doing something spontaneous/crazy/random and then think, "wait...why is this fun?" like hiking up a mountain, or the first time i went snowboarding, or going to a sweat yoga session, or staying up late on a school night doing nothing, or every year at bear lake when my cousins and i randomly go swimming at midnight. why is that supposed to be fun? that water is freezing even in the middle of the day while the sun is out. after i get done doing that crazy thing, i forget it wasn't fun, and decide that it was. does that make sense? then i go and do that thing again.

anyways, we finished the snow cave, and it was TIGHT and i decided that digging it was fun.

moral of the story:

what is family for? they're for throwing each other around in the snow to prove a point. they're for playing the same frustrating game with over and over again. they're who come rescue you when you get stuck. they are on your team when you build snow caves. as my crazy wonderful cousin jennifer sorbonne said:

"in the olden days it was SURVIVAL MODE!! when someone needed a place to stay, everyone in the town would pull together and build a barn in a day. the women would all take care of the children and the men would build a barn. that is REAL LIFE you guys! it's not any of that 'hmm i'm going to have tea and crumpet with my friends.' no. it's 'LET'S BUILD A BARN!!!'"

amen, jennifer. amen.

(this is my cousin's son, mason. he's the greatest.)

(my favorite sister!)