You never know what's gonna happen when the Barley's hit the road! This year Will found a great deal through a co-worker for a cabin in Big Bear. We booked it! We haven't been to the snow in years, not since Caylin had been born. Before that we went to Mammoth every year in January. Since we've had Caylin and Anika, traveling hasn't been the easiest thing for us, but we continue to try because we do love to travel. Caylin is old enough to be entertained by a movie in the car now and sleeps fine. Anika is pretty laid back, and Aiana has always been a great traveler. 
So we packed up (way too much stuff, but gotta be prepared!). Thank goodness my mom drove too. Aiana brought a friend, so there were 7 of us and one car would have been very uncomfortable. All the girls rode with my mom, except Anika. She did great in the car. The drive was smooth and uneventful, but beautiful. We all got a little anxious to get out once we started to see snow. Big Bear was packed! Traffic was slow. We were all ready to get out and stretch our legs! Finally we arrived at our cabin....and there was a car parked in the driveway! WTH! Will got out and walked in to find two guys sleeping on the couch. As it turns out, we were double booked!! All hotels and lodges nearby had no vacancy, however, there was hope. My mom has a friend who lives in Big Bear and happens to live in a huge, gorgeous log cabin. We just caught her right before she walked into a movie and humbly asked if we could all spend the night. She said yes, she'd be happy to have us. We each had our own room, the teens had the whole bottom floor complete with ping pong table, darts, and Foosball. They were happy. We had a nice dinner, and breakfast in the morning. There were lots of sledding hills on her property. As we were packing up, I found that the girls broke the towel rack when hanging a towel. Oh so humbling. Then outside the girls sled right into their fence making a huge dent. I knew it was time to go before anymore damage was done!
There was a sweet sledding spot just up the hill. This area used to be a small ski slope years ago, so there were awesome clear hills for sledding now. We stayed here until we knew our cabin would be vacant. 
Round two heading to the cabin. We arrived again to find an empty and cleaned cabin. Ahhh, we could unpack and get comfy. My mom and I unpacked while the girls played outside in the snow. It was decent and there was enough room, however it was hard to go from the updated spacious cabin to the 80's decor more then half the size cabin. We were kind of glad to be only staying now one night here. 
My mom and I made dinner. Just as I finished the salad I noticed water was pouring out from the ceiling, splattering all over the place and into our salad. Then I heard Aiana "MOM the toilet is broken!!!!" Yeah, the toilet was overflowing upstairs and was now flowing down into the kitchen sink!!! I grabbed a bowl and had her hold it to catch the water, grabbed a towel and ran upstairs to soak up the water. Finally it stopped. Salad was ruined. But we were all able to laugh about it.
We relaxed the rest of the evening, played games, read, watched movies. At about midnight, Anika woke up....and stayed awake....and would not go back to sleep! Her nose was stuffy and she couldn't get comfy. She was begging to get up. Then begging for a banana. About 5 hours later she finally fell back to sleep.
The next day was the day we were going to head home. The day before had been gorgeous blue skies, today, it was gray and snowing. 
I was happy that we all got to see it snow before we left, but this snow wasn't letting up. We contemplated back and forth whether to leave or stay. But we couldn't see staying one more night. We took our chances. Will took the girls out sledding while my mom and I packed up. It ended up taking us about 3 hours to get down the mountain because we had to stop and put chains on. It was snowing, foggy, and COLD!!! But there really wasn't any need for chains. In fact my mom didn't even put hers on because, as it turned out, they didn't fit her tires. 
I was happy that we all got to see it snow before we left, but this snow wasn't letting up. We contemplated back and forth whether to leave or stay. But we couldn't see staying one more night. We took our chances. Will took the girls out sledding while my mom and I packed up. It ended up taking us about 3 hours to get down the mountain because we had to stop and put chains on. It was snowing, foggy, and COLD!!! But there really wasn't any need for chains. In fact my mom didn't even put hers on because, as it turned out, they didn't fit her tires. 
The rest of the drive home was peaceful. I unpacked and took a nice hot bath. It was so nice to be home and warm. I sat down with my hot tea, ready to check my email when Aiana tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that she just puked all over the carpet! Ahhh, yes, the life of a mother! 
This trip was full of craziness, but it was awesome. I was in awe of the peace that God gave all of us. I feel like we were given little opportunities to practice patience and faith, and in the end we all had a good time.
