Tree Expotitions

"Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything."

By far the best 'Big Boots Adventure' we ever had while tree-hunting was 2 years ago with Lisa and Mike up at their property just past Snoqualmie Pass. Here are Mike and Craig cutting down one of the trees.

Here's the Ranger about 20 minutes later - - in a ditch with three beautiful Christmas trees tied to the top. Trust me, it took much more than good Big Boots to get out of that mess!


This year we much less adventursomely, yet still with great excitement, hit a tree farm in Maple Valley. It was a perfect foggy day (if you can't have snow, at least fog is nice) and the kids all had a grand time selecting the perfect tree. Okay, Carson really just rode around happily in the backpack and was agreeable to whichever tree we all liked. Here's our self-portrait prior to taking the saw to Elizabeth (that's what the girls decided to name the tree, per Abby's brainstorm about 30 seconds after loading up the van to head home with the tree on top... so Elizabeth she is).

In A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, chapter VIII, "In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole," Christopher Robin and Pooh carry on their conversation about taking an Adventure:
Christopher Robin: "We are all going on an Expedition"
"Going on an Expotition?" said Pooh eagerly. "I don't think I've ever been on one of those. Where are we going to on this Expotition?"
"We're going to discover the North Pole."
"Oh! I see," said Pooh. "Are bears any good at discovering it?"
"Of course they are. And Rabbit and Kanga and all of you. It's an Expedition. That's what an Expedition means. A long line of everybody..."

According to Christopher Robin's definition and this picture taken by Craig, I guess our fun last Saturday in Chehalis helping the Norths find their tree also qualified as an Expedition :)