Ice Skating & Moss Lake

All of Jared's siblings went ice skating together one day over the break. Jared and Marie actually took ice skating when they were younger (though Jared lied to all his friends about it because he thought it was embarrassing), so they're actually pretty good. Jared taught me how to ice skate during our first married winter. I'm not as good as he is, but I only fell once this time around! And it was fun to watch everyone rally around their youngest sibling, Will, to teach him how to skate for the first time. He originally didn't want to come, but he wound up loving it. Must be a family thing.

On one of the last days of our break, Jared took his mom and I on a hike he found online to the secluded Moss Lake. The hike was just beautiful and it was nice to get some fresh air, but after we had gone probably three miles (the hike was supposed to be a two-mile loop), we realized that we had probably gone the wrong way. We tried a couple of side trails, but they definitely weren't taking us back toward the parking lot, so we eventually decided to just take the main trail all the way back. We did so and were happy and hungry and tired when the parking lot came into view.

And then Jared realized that he couldn't find the keys to the car. They were gone. We started to panic just a little because it was cold and we were hungry and we had no cell service and even if we could get cell service, Jared's mom was the only one with a phone and it was almost out of battery! Jared was sure that the keys had fallen out of his pocket at some point, so he started jogging along the trail while us ladies walked toward the main road to try to get cell service. We eventually were able to call Marie to come rescue us, but as we walked back toward our car we worried that Marie might not make it (the roads were getting icy) and that Jared would freeze and die on the trail (he left his coat at the car and was really hungry). But just a short time later, we heard Jared shouting our names and he came jogging into view with the keys! He had left them at the very end of the trail, meaning that he must be a really fast runner because that was a loooong hike. On the way home, we called off the search party and got some hot tortilla soup at Ixtapa's. Yay memories!