Chapter 46

                                    

                                          
Waking up on his first morning in Big Bear Lake, Clay smiled to himself as he was already excited to get the day started and have some fun with his family. Slowly getting out if the warmth that is his bed, the Jensen boy got dressed, choosing some jeans, a dark green t-shirt, and a dark green and blue plaid shirt. After he was changed, the 18-year-old made his way downstairs, instantly picking up on the aroma that filled the large vacation-like mountain home. Entering the kitchen, Clay saw Bailey and Kasey already having their breakfast as they appeared to be excited about something. 
                          
After grabbing himself a plate of the breakfast food, Clay walked over and sat at the table with his cousins. "So, what fun stuff are we going to do today?" He asked, making the two young girls glance at each other before smiling at him happily. "We're gonna go sledding today. Then we'll come back here and get warm by a fire, have hot chocolate, and watch a Christmas movie." Kasey explained, her sister nodding her head in agreement. Clay smiled and gave a small nod of his head. "Sounds like a plan. But you can sled in two feet of snow? Seems like you would just sink right into it." The boy said thoughtfully. "Don't worry, Cay. We got the good snow." Bailey said reassuringly. "The good snow?" Clay questioned, slightly confused. Kasey nodded her head in response to her older cousin. "Yeah! The kind that makes noise when you walk through it." She said, making the boy nod his head in realization. "You mean the kind of snow that's firm and makes a crunch sound?" He asked. "Yeah. That's the best kind of snow for us to go sledding in." Bailey said excitedly. 
                          
After breakfast, being that the weather outside was currently a steady 28°, Clay headed back upstairs to change into his snow pants and put on his snow boots. The 18-year-old then grabbed his winter coat, a pair of warm gloves, and black beanie before heading back downstairs, putting the three items on as he descended down the staircase. After everyone was bundled up and ready to go, they left the house and everyone climbed into the car.
                          
A short drive later, Taylor stopped the car in a small parkinglot and everyone exited the vehicle. During the drive, the group had discussed how Clay, Bailey, and Kasey could spend some time together sledding while the three adults would head into town for a little bit. So after the older boy retrieved three sleds from the trunk of the car, the three adults drove off, leaving Clay and his cousins to have some fun in the snow.
                          
The sledding location was a decently tall hillside that sloped into two hills with a small area of flat ground separating the two averagely steep hills. Clay smiled to himself as he walked through the 27 inches of snow, carrying his blue plastic yet very durable sled up the hill with Bailey and Kasey walking slightly in front of him as they carried their sleds. The boy watched as kids and teens passed him on their own sleds as he continued making his way up the sledding hills. 
                          
Once he was finally at the top, the 18-year-old turned and and looked down the hill that had an abandoned road a little ways in front of it. Being pulled out of his thoughts, Clay turned to the sound of his name suddenly being called, followed by some footsteps crunching along in the snow. Looking in the direction the voice came from, Clay instantly smiled when he saw a few familiar faces that he hadn't seen in a long while. Heading towards the Jensen boy were some friends that live in South Dakota. The teen's South Dakota friends' names are Christopher, Macey, Davie, Brooke, Abby, Noah, Jacklyn, and Katie. The group of friends greeted each other and shared hugs as they hadn't seen each other since the last time Clay had visited South Dakota, which was a little over two years ago. 
                          
After greeting and catching up with his friends for a short minute, the group began sledding down the hills together. Being as they had been sledding down this hill before, Kasey and Bailey were quick to start from the very top rather than start halfway and work their way up. As everyone continued sledding together, the group of friends lost track of time, but no one really cared about time at the moment as they were all too busy having a bunch of fun in the snow together.