On our second week of summer we went on our first vacation. We rented a cabin up in the mountains. Our originally plan was to rent the same one in Estes Park we stayed at last year, but it was booked. SO after some searching I presented 2 different cabins to the kids. One we called "the hermit cabin" becasue it was in the middle of no where and the other was the "city cabin" because it was right in the middle of Estes Park. They chose the hermit cabin (except Brock - he was sure we would get murdered).
On our first day we couldn't go to the cabin until 4 pm - so we drove the 40 minutes to Estes Park and did all the "city stuff" first. We parked at the top of main street and split up. Noah and Megan wanted to go check out the library, Mads and Brock wanted to do some shopping, and Jason and I took the babies to walk around. When we got there it started pouring rain. So we ran into the first shop, which was a Christmas shop. Luckily there were MILLIONS of cool things to look at - unfortunately everything was easily breakable. Jason and I were vigilant and I am amazed to report after being stuck in a tiny breakable christmas shop with 2 toddlers for an hour nothing got broken!
I asked the kids to send me a selfie of their adventures.
Once the rain let up we saw a moose!
Then we went out to dinner.
The rain stopped and we walked around and got taffy and ice cream.
We picked our cabin for a very specific kind of vacation. The house was pretty old and not that great - but had a lot of really cool features for the property. It was totally isolated on 3 acers. It had a mountain right in the back yard to climb, a river, pond, and bridge on property. It had swing sets, slides, play houses, and a hot tub. There were hiking trails within walking distance all around us. We figured we would just stay at the cabin the whole vacation and play on property or go on the close hikes. Well.... it wasn't quite the vacation we envisioned. But, as all things bad go, I hardly remember what was "bad" and only remember the fond things. But basically it rained the entire time. That is very unusual for Colorado, to rain all day and all night for 3 straight day - but of course, it did for our vacation. Luckily the hot tub was under the deck so we could still use it, but we didn't hike, play in the river, fish, or climb the mountain. Below are some pictures of what we did do.
Obviously they enjoyed the hot tube - day time and night time.
The four had a shared room with bunk beds.
These two slept in the laundry room. Not without incident, however. The put their blankets in the washing machine and washed them one night. Another night Dane got into the circuit breaker box and turned off the power to half the house, of course we didn't know so we called the owners to figure out why half the house wasn't working. Once we figured out it was Dane we had to embarrassingly admit it was our 4 year old
There would be moments for either a light drizzle or stopped rain and Dane and I would wander the property.
Once or twice the older kids would go out and play tag, hide and seek, or capture the flag.
But we spend the majority of our time indoors. Which proved to be more difficult than we planned. The cabin had no internet, cell service, tv, or dvds. We had not prepared to be inside at all. So we had to entertain ourselves the old fashioned way. We played hid and seek in the house, wrestled, read books, and played board games. We discovered a new family favorite and came home and bought it.
On the LAST NIGHT we received a huge blessing. At 5:oo pm the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was wonderful!! We headed down to the fire pit and built a fire together, roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, talked, laughed, played whole family forest tag, and Jason burned his "burn box" (old financial papers) Sine this was our "one activity" we took quite a few pictures. Madison took my phone and documented quite a lot.
Jason stayed up till midnight burning his papers. He came in looking like a coal miner - it was pretty sexy!
On the way home we were hit with more rain. I was driving because Jason was trying to finish our read aloud (Mornings on Horseback: A Theodore Roosevelt bio). About 5 miles from home I hydro-planed. We spun 360 across 3 lanes of high way and then slid sideways off an embankment. It was a weird, surreal experience. It went by in slow motion and I remember all my thoughts and actions. I remember trying to regain control of the car and when I couldn't I asked Jason what I should do. He told me to let off the brakes and straighten the wheel. I told him I did and it wasn't working and what to do now. At that moment we saw we were going off the embankment. In that moment we both (shared with each other later) knew that we were going to roll. For me, it was very matter of fact. I knew this was it, it was going to be bad. I knew we were going to roll and that we would have to call ambulances and that some of our children might not make it. I was filled with calm and peace and I knew that it would be ok. I knew we could handle it. In my mind I saw the crash, the car ruined, and the ambulances there, I saw the lights and heard the sounds. As we sped down the hill, hitting rocks and bumps as we went I felt total calm, peace, and acceptance that our lives were about to change forever.
Then, we landed. Up right. One a road. I looked around and every one was totally ok. We were fine. Even the car was fine (mostly).
One tire was flat, so in the pouring rain Jason and Brock (in Mads sweatshirt) got out and put on the spare, and we drove home. Our gratitude was great. The next day was fast Sunday and several children bore their testimonies. I was ok until we got home. I was going through a bit of PTSD as I realized half my brain was still sliding down the hill and waiting for the crash that never materialized. I stayed in this "fight or flight" mode for the next 24 hours - waiting for the crash, waiting for the ambulances. I felt amazed at the ease in which we escaped sure pain. I felt unworthy to be spared such heart ache. It was hard for me to grasp. I know angels were with us. I know we should have been hit on the freeway (it was busy), I know that the way our car hit the cliff it should have rolled. I know we were protected. I am not sure why. I am not sure why I felt so sure it was going to be bad, and accepted it and felt good about it - for it to never happen. But I am grateful.
