Snowhouse II was in Sun River, Oregon. We figured if the world hadn't ended the first time around it might be safe to do it again.

Snowhouse III was in Packwood. (Yes, that's in Washington.)

When Uncle Boppi, aka Martin, got time off and they decided to visit from Kentucky for Christmas and New Year's Nana and Papa set up Snowhouse IV back in Sun River. Unbeknownst to them, we would try the very concept of Snowhouse with two ill children and a car packed to the roof with gear.

We started this magical adventure the day after Christmas. The drive to Portland is usually around three house, but it was over five. We kept reminding ourselves we were part of the problem and it would do us no good to curse the other drivers. The girls did remarkably well for such a long drive.

When we arrived at Grams and Gramps house on the east side of Portland we were greeted by virtually everyone even remotely related to Amy. Grams and Gramps, of course, but also Nana, Papa, Auntie Nicole, Uncle Boppi, Cousin Molly, Cousin Shannon, Cousin Chris, Cousin Sierra, Uncle Larry, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Seriously, it was wacky.)

We did dinner and presents (that's the third Christmas for the girls if you're counting) before the girls completely melted down. With so many of the family around we bunked in the living room while Nana and Papa found no room at the inn and headed to a hotel down the street.

Morning came WAY too soon, but soon the pitter patter and thumpy thumpy of feet little and big churned up the house. Nana and I went on an after-Christmas buying spree (Woo hoo! New computer!) and returned just in time for lunch. After lunch and the arrival from Kentucky of Grandpa Dick and Mimi (sort of... they're Uncle Boppi's... er... Martin's parents) we formed up our convoy and headed east.

The lead truck (a white Explorer) was the Rolling 'Shmello. We somehow got the cool designation as the Death Star, and the Rednecks (Dick and Margaret's burgundy rental SUV) brought up the rear. The snow started on the flanks of Mt. Hood and continued pretty much unabated until we were down the other side several hours later.

We stopped only a few times. At a rest area near Government Camp, at a certain McRestaurant with an indoor play area in Madras, and in Redmond for dinner with Uncle Ron and Aunt Geri. We hadn't seen them in years (Uncle Ron is Grams' brother) so it took the girls a few minutes to warm up, but then they were back to normal.

We pulled into Sun River late, but settled into the cozy four bedroom, four bath "cabin" that was transformed into Snowhouse IV upon our arrival. Lilly would share our room while Clara and Molly bunked together in another. Everybody else got their own rooms with private baths. (How sweet was that?) Unfortunately, Lilly began her countdown to illness about the time we arrived and woke us a couple of times that first night.

In the morning, I tackled Paulina Peak with a guy I'd never met except on the local hiking message boards. In spite of sharing the area with snowmobiles it was one of my best snowshoes ever. You can read about it and see the pictures here. I returned to the house in time to stand at the bar and eat dinner. Nobody could smell me over the tasty aromas cooked up by master chef Martin, so it was all good until I could grab a shower.

Lilly had spent the day fussing and getting sicker while everybody else ran errands to set up the house for the rest of the stay. (Yeah, I was a lucky _________ (you fill in the blank) for missing out on all that and bailing on the family.)

We drove into Sun River Village and "shopped" a bit, but found few of the stores were open and there really wasn't all that much we needed. We did get carmel corn and ice cream, though.

That night Lilly got worse and woke us more frequently. Clara threw up in the middle of the night and in the end I wound up on the couch upstairs with Lilly trying to capture a few winks in between the ceaseless call of, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy..."

The rest of the day didn't get much better.

Carl and I were about to head off to do get parts to fix my snowshoes when I realized we had a flat tire. (What else could go wrong?) The short trip out with Lilly turned into a series of stops here and there. We dropped the tire at the shop, realized Lilly was asleep in the car dashing any hopes of a proper nap, went to the hardware store, went to... you get the picture. We returned Lilly to the house and I went back to pick up the tire.

Grams and Gramps had driven down and so I introduced Grams, Nana, and Auntie Nicole to snowshoeing on the golf course in back of Snowhouse. Nana was surprised it was so easy, which probably decreased my manliness factor, but sometimes these things can't be helped.

Dinner was pretty much a disaster for us with Lilly fussing/crying/screaming through the meal while Clara felt sick most of it.

That night we left the girls (Clara, Lilly, and Molly) in the capable hands of the grandparents and the four plainparents (me, Amy, Nicole, and Martin) headed off for a nightshoe. We found that the Edison Sno-Park was only 12 miles from Sun River and spent a good couple of hours tromping about in the snow. (That trip report can be found here.)

The next morning was pretty much a repeat. Clara had slept with Nana and Papa and thrown up again in the early morning hours. Amy slept a little later, but got nailed by a bout of morning sickness so she wasn't in any better shape. Lilly and I again occupied the couch in the family room early in the morning.

After witnessing our family's deteriorating state Nana and Papa swapped rooms with us. It sounds weird, but we stuck Lilly in the closet (I told you it would sound weird) and Clara got a bed in her sleeping bag on the floor. (Hang up the phone, you don't need to call CPS. The "closet" was darn near bigger than Lilly's room at home and was big enough for suitcases and her pack-n-play.)

Amy and I stayed home to try to get the girls to feel better, but mostly in vain. Lilly couldn't be consoled and Clara repeatedly claimed stomach pains. When the rest of the crew returned from a trip to Sisters (not named after the Haines sisters, by the way) I retreated with Lilly to our downstairs bedroom where she proceded to scream for an hour or two. In the end, I came up for dinner and Lilly flipped a switch and was a happy little girl of almost two years. Figures.

After the girls went down we played dominoes, which it turns out are less like Legos and more like playing cards that you can build stuff out of like they were Legos. We played Mexican Train, though I'm still unsure why it's called Mexican Train other than... yeah. Anyway, we played it until we were too tired to see and went to sleep.

Finally, finally, the girls slept well. Too bad my alarm went off at 6:05am. I headed off with Carl, Martin, and Dick to climb Tumalo Mountain near Mt. Bachelor. (That trip report is here.) We had a great time and got home in time for lunch.

When the girls woke from their naps (Woo hoo! Naps!) I busted out the pulk for some fun on the golf course. Of course, Clara didn't want to get in at first so I was just that crazy guy with a sled following him. After a bit Nana got in and Clara jumped on board and we took the pulk for a couple of sedate turns in the snow.

Clara got off the pulk to make snow angels, but became the big sister when Amy arrived with Lilly. Lilly went for a few rides, though she wasn't really awake enough to enjoy it or to fuss about it for that matter. Amy climbed on board and I toured the whole family around a bit. When Auntie Nicole and Molly came out Nana and Papa took Lilly back in and I was told to "Go faster" and make "Gentle turns" with Clara and Molly in the pulk. Nicole went for a few rides as well.

I was starting to wear down after sprinting back and forth with the pulk attached to my waist so we wandered over to the next hole (the 18th to be specific) where there were some folks sledding. The hill was pretty much solid ice. I decided to give it a whirl in the pulk and wiped out almost immediately. Clara and Molly declared their interest so I flipped the pulk's poles to the back and pushed them down the hill much to their delight.

Of course, then I had to go retrieve them. Hmph.

We did this a couple of times until the other party headed off. They tied a big beefy lab to the sled with a girl of maybe five or six years on it and the dog took off with the girl giggling with excitement. Before our girls got any more bright ideas we headed back to Snowhouse.

(When asked what her favorite parts of the trip were Clara cited snow angels and riding in the pulk. That's my girl!)

Dinner was a hodgepodge of leftovers and appetizers. We watched bad TV and ate too much, but surprisingly didn't drink much. Amy was, of course, on the wagon and it just didn't seem too cool to get hammered with the in-laws so I stuck mostly to Coke.

We finished the night with another game of the Mexican Train (VICTORY for me!) before heading to bed just after watching the ball drop in Times Square "Live" at midnight West Coast time. It's probably the first time I haven't seen the Space Needle thing in years. Lame.

We were due to leave on New Year's Day so the morning was full of packing. Somehow, we had decreased our load over the week so getting everything in the car was a little easier. (Of course, nothing's "easy" when you have to include a four-foot long sled and a pair of six-foot long poles.) We left almost on time at about 11am.

The two other trucks headed westish to their destinations around Portland. Given the girls' ongoing ills Amy and I opted to drive all the way home in one push. It took almost exactly eight hours with only a couple of brief stops, but we made it. The worst part was going over Snoqualmie Pass with a billion other people and freezing rain. (Don't get me started about the guy in the beat up Honda Civic with a spare tire in use.)

We had a quick, late dinner and put the girls to bed before sorting out the clean clothes from the dirty and figuring out exactly what we'd be doing tomorrow. Happily, since we were supposed to not be home until the next night I had the luxury of a day at home instead of at the office.

We'll need the haze of time to cloud our memories of some parts of this trip before we try another Snowhouse adventure or anything else major for that matter. With number three due in June you can bet we won't be looking for Snowhouse V next winter or probably even the winter after that. However, there were so many good things about this trip that we'll definitely do something like it again.