I think that is the worst part about growing up. We lose some magic. Our recent family vacation was of the National Lampoon variety, not the fun-filled snow getaway we had envisioned. For the parents anyway. My children, however, they saw the magic.

The forecast warned us there would be extreme weather. The DO NOT TRAVEL snow storm alert, unsurprisingly worried my husband, so before our trip even began, it was less than perfect. I contacted the host of our air bnb asking to reschedule since I was worried we wouldn’t even be able to get to her place. Road closures were warned at 2000 ft, and her place was at a 4000 ft elevation. She informed us that there would be NO REFUND, and that the storm warning was vague and didn’t include her area. “The 4 almost never closes by my house, and if it does it's for a rare tree falling, not snow”. I thought we were just bay area wimps who know nothing about extreme weather.

“Let’s go,” I said, “We will be fine!” I said.

Will (my partner) agreed reluctantly that we would attempt to get to her place, but have modified expectations and be okay turning around to go home if need be.

My mom gets to my house in the morning and we get on the road at about 11 am. Arnold is only 2 hours from our house in Livermore, we are set to arrive for our picnic lunch in the beautiful winter wonderland at Big Trees by 1:00 PM.

We arrive finally after about 500 “are we there yet”’s by my 4-year-old. We are only 50 ft from the entrance at a chain control stop. No big! We’re prepared. We’ve had chains for years in the trunk. We’ve just never had to use them since it barely snowed the past few years.

My husband and I get out of the car on the side of the road to put them on. My husband insists because we have a 4 wheel drive Subaru that they go on the back on the car. I am skeptical, since every other car is putting them on the front, but since I have no service, Google is no use to me. I trust the engineer telling me he knows what he’s doing. About 15 minutes go by, as do MANY other cars who have put their chains on in no time at all. We are cold, wet, and nervous on the side of the road. I also have to pee. “Forget it,” I say, “let’s just go check in at the Airbnb and figure it out there since there won’t be so many cars passing”.

At this point, I am convinced they don’t go on the back wheel and we are just not doing it right, but I’ll just try myself when we get there. We get to the place and get the kids in their snowsuits to play out in front of the house while I figure out the chains. There are 3 locking points on these chains. They go on the front wheels, not the back, and we were putting them on upside down before. Despite my intense urge to say “I told you so” I let it go and try to get them on myself. I have 2 of the 3 locking points secured but even with all my strength and Wills, we are about 1 inch shy of getting the other lock secured. WTF? I am doing this right, I swear. Why isn’t it working? Seriously. How difficult can this be? We spent almost 2 hours on and off trying to get these stupid things on.

It’s snowing. I feel cold and frustration as snow gets in my hair and eyes while I wrestle a tire. Behind me, I can hear gleeful squeals of toddlers.” It’s SNOWING! It’s SNOWING!”. They felt that magic. I was missing it. My kids are happily playing in the snow with my mom, and I am missing it because of flipping chains.

I ask for Will to double check these are the right size chains (though I swear we already checked) and we frustratingly remember. . . we got new tires this year. Apparently, these tires are just slightly bigger than the old ones. I could really use some rose-colored glasses because right now, all I’m seeing is red.

Okay. Deep breathes. No big deal. Let’s focus on a solution.

It’s now after 4 PM. Going to be dark soon, and all the automotive stores in town are closed. I call a hardware store and they have 1 set of chains in our size left. After I purchase them and drive back, they are so easy to get on. No wonder everyone else was able to stop on the side of the road and do this. I feel intense relief and annoyance at the same time.

Will and I felt so defeated, not getting to go play in the snow with the kids, instead angrily fighting metal chains, while gritting our teeth trying not to fight with each other. We are soaked and frustrated. Luckily my mom was there to keep them occupied while we dealt with the great chain debacle of 2019.

Kids are now wet and tired, and we all need a break. “Come inside guys, I’ll put a movie on so we can relax and get warm.” Now, in no way does my family need a TV to survive, but when you tell a 4 year old and a 2 year old they can watch TV and then find out there is not TV, it can get ugly. Why was that not listed in the ain bnb post? Was it? Did I just forget? UGH! I would have packed so many more indoor activities. We have coloring books and floof but man, I could really use some Paw Patrol right now! Rider, we need you!

Not enough craft supplies to the kids’ energy level. Not enough M& M’s for mama’s stress level.

Okay, stay positive. Find a solution. More deep breathes.

Dinner! That will keep us occupied. Order pizza? No, my mom suggests we go get it. “It will be something fun to do!”

Okay, this will be good. There is a sale on our favorite Pizza! We save $8 bucks. Perfect. I’m supposed to limit gluten and dairy, so I order my own light cheese extra thin flatbread. Excited to dig in when . . . .

Cora spills a full glass of water all over my food.

Cool.

No big deal.

Deep breathes.

Find a solution.

I’ll eat the regular pizza and have a stomach ache later. I don’t care at this point. Sitting next to me, Will is starting to get anxious. I can tell he's worried about this storm and hoping to get out of here ASAP. I can hear the “I told you so’s” coming from a mile away. We are in the restaurant for maybe an hour and there is already about 2 inches of snow on the car. Cora and Max are mesmerized. “WOW! Look how much snow there is Daddo!”. I can see his blood pressure rising.

Stay positive. No big deal. We’ve got this.

I reassure him with “We have the rights chains now, we are so close to the Air BnB. Let’s go get warm clothes on and go to bed. Also, you brought your laptop, right? We’ll put a movie on for the kids.” Feeling so proud of myself for being so solution oriented, we head back.

Back at the cabin, Will starts to search for his bag. “Where’s my stuff?” he asks. “I don’t know.” I respond, “I packed for myself, the kids and snow gear.” Will always packs his own bag. I am responsible for mine and the kids and anything extra like specialty gear, snow, pool, etc. He always packs his own stuff, but of course, his bag is not here. Of all the people on the trip to forget something, its the person who was sure this trip would be a disaster. “I brought it out to the car. You must have left it on the curb!” he accused. “Impossible!” I protest. Then I remember, as we were packing the car, a yellow lab came running out of nowhere and jumped into the passenger seat of our car. My packing was interrupted by a lost dog that I then had to lead to his 8-year-old owner who was chasing after him. FUUUUUUUUUUU…………..N times. Was it my fault? Crap.

Okay, no problem, we’ll go buy something. Solutions. But it’s now 8 pm. Everything but the dollar store is closed. Crap. Think. Okay, well they usually have socks, so “at least you can have clean dry socks in the morning. That’s worth the trip down the road.” I suggest. Will decides to go. Less then 2 minutes later he is back. We have been snowed in already. The driveway is so steep, he can’t get out right now.

Then, we learn after getting the kids set up in front of a laptop, that the internet is out. Not in the apartment, in the whole town. Just keeps getting better! Maybe now I’ll learn not to promise Paw Patrol to tired toddlers. Then post paw patrol disappointment, we started hearing an engine revving and car doors slamming. We look out the window.

The car from the apartment below was trying to get out. The kids sat and watched those poor guys shovel and drive and slide back and push and shovel on repeat for about an hour. It was glorious. The next morning, they sat on the counter at the kitchen window just watching for quite a while as well. I thought about this moment again a week ago, while we sat an watched birds through the window eating olives off a tree in my moms front yard. Note to self. Spend more time in front of the window, and less time in front of the TV.

The next morning, bright and early at 6 am Cora announced with delight, “IT SNOWED! It’s so beautiful! It snowed so much! Look at the car! Look at the trees! We are snowed in!”

Oh boy. The thing I said wouldn’t be an issue, was now upon us.

It snowed 2 feet overnight. Not the end of the world, I know. Any midwesterners are reading this laughing at us bay area wimps, but that’s the most snow we’ve ever seen accumulate overnight. And most devastatingly, now Will can say “I told you so”.

The host let us know a plow would come by before dark. Welp, we might as well enjoy some snow in the driveway since we can’t get to Big Tree’s.

Cora and I walked up the steep driveway to learn that 2 buildings down, the highway was closed. Because of SNOW! The host has just assured me that the highway closing near her house from snow was SO RARE we would have no problem getting out of town. Luckily, it was closed towards to ski resorts, not towards our house. So now, we just had to figure out how to get out of that driveway and we could at least drive home. Will and Mom would be able to make it to work the next day.

Welp, let’s make the best of it. My mom and the kids started to sled down the steep driveway. Cora was so excited about all the snow. Max wasn’t sure about any of it. He yelled “COLD!” And needed to be held most of the time. I tried to dig out the car enough to get the case of water I left in the car. Our neighbors from below eventually succeeded in getting to the upper parking lot last night, so they were now parked next to us determined to shovel out ASAP. I played with the kids for a bit, then suggested we just help them shovel out so we don’t have to wait until dark. We worked for a few hours off and on shoveling and taking play breaks when I finally went back inside to see a message from the host “The plow will be there in 2 hours”. The text was sent 90 minutes ago. UGH. Why didn’t I keep my phone on me? We just wasted so much time.

Of course, my kids didn’t see it that way. “WOW! Look at that big truck! It’s moving all the snow! That’s so cool!” I tried so hard to view it from their eyes instead of “I wish I didn’t waste a second digging out when I could have been sledding with my kids”.

We finally get on the road. The kids want to play still, but all the snow parks are closed. We decided to just get out of town and stop in Murphys for lunch. We get going, Will plugs in his phone and SPARK, FLAME, SMOKE. His charger burnt his hand and almost started a fire in the car. I can’t help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of the last 24 hours. “Man, what else can go wrong,” I think, then I look ahead and. . . .cars stopped. Highway closed. A tree and power line fell. We are now pigeonholed. We can’t go up the mountain to play, we can’t go down the mountain to get home.

So many deep breathes. Good thing it was fresh mountain air.

It is then, that I let it all go. I’ll see this for what it is. Total ridiculousness. A memorable trip, where my children see magic through all the muck.

We turn around and find a spot for lunch. The food was amazing. And the office park behind the building is unplowed with lots of fresh snow for Cora to play in. She had so much fun in an alley between a home decor store and a veterinary practice. Cora enjoyed every second. Max enjoyed being held by Grammie while reminding us all that it was “COLD!”.

After about 3 hours, the road opens, and we can go home.

From door to door, we were only out of our home for 33 Hours. But it felt like a week.

Despite the weekend of tests, our marriage survived.

I am also happy to report that the bag of clothes that I MUST have left on the curb outside of the car, was in the house. On the bed. Where he left it.

But most importantly, my kids looked back on it all with joy. And now, I can too.

Children See Magic

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