Sledding and Lake Shikotsu ice festival

On day 2, we decided that some "relaxing" snow play was in order. So we headed out to find some sleds and then drove around near our hotel to find a place to play. We just happened upon this amazing hill about a mile from our hotel which was perfect. There was a little building with bathrooms and a heater, but it was surrounded by just snow and trees, tons of powder all around and this perfect sledding hill. There were others there, but it was not at all crowded.

 When we ask Rowan what his favorite part of this trip was, he often states that it was sledding. He had the perfect little snow suit and he was ready to play in the snow.

 Even Boden got a turn! He wasn't a fan of the snow hitting his face though.

 Rowan was equally excited about making snow angels. He laid down and made a snow angel pretty much everywhere that we went throughout the entire trip. It was adorable.

 Pink cheeks-the only part of him touching the cold air

It's snowing!

 Last year at this time he was burying him in the sand in Hawaii...this year we got a little colder, the snow in Hokkaido. He loved it just as much though :) We're just glad we don't live in it.

 Love these people!

We taught Rowan about not eating "yellow snow". he thought it was hilarious

 The view of the river in Jozankei...overlooking our hotel area

We originally had planned to go back to the hotel for a bit and then drive to Lake Shikotsu for the lake ice festival, but decided that it would be too hard to motivate ourselves to get up and go again after relaxing at the hotel, so decided to just drive there while the kids napped in the car. It worked out great. The kids took an awesome nap while we drove through the mountains to the lake. Grant was kind enough to sit in the car once we got there while the kids napped, and Alexa and I went and ate the most delicious bowl of ramen ever. Warm ramen with snow falling outside...that's how it's meant to be eaten :) We also found an adorable and delicious dessert shop and got some to take back and share with Grant in the car. Eventually the kids woke up and we headed out!

It started to snow pretty good in the beginning, but tapered off pretty quickly which we were happy about.
The kids seriously didn't complain once about being cold. Either my overprotectiveness of buying enough clothes to make sure they weren't cold, worked...or, they're just awesome. I think a combo of both :) This picture sort of makes me laugh...I see this being my life if I lived in the snow.

 Pretty bridge in the snow

 This ice festival was made by spraying lake water to make the structures. It was seriously remarkable. This was probably my favorite place of the trip. It was so cool!

 People stuck coins to the inside of this giant igloo

 More snow slides, Rowan again went down a million times

The funny thing we realized here, was that Rowan has no idea how to wait in line. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he really has no reason to know how. Except for at the store to checkout or something, he's probably really never waited in a line. This picture illustrates it perfectly. We were all just cracking up at the bottom and no one really seemed to care (this little blonde kid-even though he had a hat on, can get away with a lot here :)

All the kids were lined up at the top to go down the slide together. Rowan walks up, pushes his way through and then just goes down while everyone is still waiting at the top. It was seriously so funny.

 "Snow is falling!"

 The last spot we walked through had ice around pine tree pieces and it smelled AMAZING (like tons of Christmas trees!) It looked so cool and smelled even better. All of the structures were unreal.

This was the perfect day of fun and exploration. We loved every minute of it. The drive home was interesting as the mountains had gotten a bit of snow while we were there, but our sweet 4WD Mazda Premacy van with snow tires made it feel easy!