Snow “Birth” Day!

Several months ago, probably as a response to her habitual viewing of Frozen, Sienna said she wanted to go visit the snow for her birthday in January.  As a six-year-old San Diegan, she’d never been in snow before.  I figured we could take a day trip up to Big Bear on New Years Day, or something.  So, I encouraged her dream.

How fortunate we were that San Diego County was hit with a rare, extra-cold, winter storm this week!  We would have much fewer miles to travel to get her to the snow – and on her actual birthday, no less!

Yesterday morning, Sienna’s 7th birthday, the four of us and Gaga, got on the road just after 8:00 am, headed to the quaint little town of Julian.  We’d read media reports that the area was crazy busy the day before.  With 6 to 9 inches of snowfall, folks descended on the town in droves on New Years Day.  Traffic was backed up for hours!  We were so pleased with ourselves for waiting a day because there were very few people on the road for our drive.

Appropriately, our music of choice for the drive was the Frozen soundtrack.  It was fun to all sing along and then see snow start appearing, little by little, as we climbed up the mountain.  By the time we reached Julian, there were entire valleys of snow.  Beautiful!

Watching Sienna’s reaction to the snow was priceless!  She was so excited and enthusiastic about it.  We took some pictures and hiked around the town for a bit. The views were beautiful and reminded us of all the wintery films, cards, and pictures we’ve seen over the Christmas season. Then, a sweet woman saw us walking by and asked if we wanted to play in her backyard.  It had pristine, untouched snow!

Dennis immediately began a snowball fight and ruthlessly pummeled his wife, mother-in-law, and children with snowballs!  Teo wasn’t a fan.  He sadly told us, “Daddy threw a snowball at me.”  We tried to defend ourselves, which only encouraged Dennis’s onslaught.

Sienna joyfully made snow angels as we enjoyed our little winter wonderland!  She was completely oblivious to the cold.  I’m fairly certain she was pretending to be Elsa, i.e. “The cold never bothered me anyway.”

After playing and becoming cold and wet, we strolled around town some more and ended up getting coffee, hot chocolate, and apple pie (a Julian specialty) to warm up.  A stop into the local used book store was next.  It was sweet watching Sienna look through books and ask the shopkeeper if he had any children’s books about cats.  She’s growing up!

The entire outing was magical.  I was beyond happy and grateful that Sienna got to enjoy a memorable experience on her birthday.  It was heartwarming that her dream was so simple and her joy so pure.