President Monson taught that we need to find "joy in the journey." We decided to follow his counsel. I think it is probably experiences such as these that prevented the parents from actually taking us to Disneyland for Christmas.
We were invited by some friends to go up to Idaho City and cut down a Christmas Tree. So we bundled up the kids and climbed into the car and headed to the Boise National Forest in search of a tree. We were very excited. We imagined driving home with a giant tree strapped to roof of the car with the roots sticking out over the hood.
Nobody told us we would be actually hiking through the woods. Shaun Patterson, who unlike me actually earned his Eagle Scout shuttled kids across the slippery rocks. Sara was okay with this the first time, but after we decided to turn around and go to a spot with a road she watched Shaun fall into the water right before he carried he across. When he picked her up her eyes got big and she held on for dear life. I am sure that she was thinking a silent prayer the entire time.
Abby thought the whole thing was a great adventure. She sat in her backpack cheering, talking, and smiling the whole time.
Sara confirmed her princess status. She did not enjoy the hike through the pristine wilderness. Along with camping I think this is another activity Sara will not be doing any time soon. 
FYI, you cannot cut down these trees. There are laws regulating cutting down a Christmas tree. We paid $10.00 in Idaho City for a license. You can only cut down trees that are 300 feet from anything and you can only cut down trees less than 12 feet tall. Believe it or not with all these rules it actually makes finding a decent tree difficult. I will leave it to speculation as to how closely I adhered to the rules. 
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