Spring Break!!!

Chris, Chloe and I out sledding.

It is late Saturday night and we just got home from our Spring Break vacation. Chris drove the whole 12 hours so he came in and went straight to bed but Elle is riding home with our friends the Orgills who got a flat tire so I need to stay up and wait for her to come home....a great time for me to blog. I am exhausted but so happy as we had the BEST time. We have some good friends, the Allens, who have a cabin in Pagosa Springs, CO and they were nice enough to let us stay there. I must give a clear picture. This cabin is HUGE. There are 8 bedrooms that each have a king or 2 queen beds and the rooms are each large enough to fit a whole family, 2 full kitchens, 3 huge living areas, all on 30 acres nestled in the Colorado mountains. There is a pin ball machine (circa 1970's) a ping pong table, pool table, shuffle board and 3 snowmobiles. What else could we need!! 4 other families went with us (each with at least 4 children) and we didn't feel crowded at all. This cabin is not luxurious, it is rustic and there was lots of work to be done but that is what we loved about it.

This is the cabin....you can see why it was so cold, the only thing not completely covered in snow was part of the roof and the door.

Our family left Sunday evening and arrived Monday morning at about 6 am. We left the kids in the car for about 2 hours as the cabin was colder inside than out. Chris and I got all the pilot lights lit, water turned on, I chopped up some kindling and lit 2 large roaring fires and at about 8 am we let the girls join us. (Yes you do want me in your wagon train as I can build an amazing fire in no time!) It is so weird but I loved the rustic part of our experience so much. It is just not the same when you arrive at a nice hotel and have all the amenities. (don't get me wrong, I love that also) but getting there and working hard shoveling snow, digging out snowmobiles, cutting kindling and roughing it together was so much fun to me.

Jimmy and Chris getting the snowmobiles dug out and running.

We had the first day alone and had the best time celebrating Chloe's birthday (I will do a whole separate post on that) We went into town, had dinner and focused on making it a great day for Chloe. The rest of the families arrived Tuesday morning and the mayhem and fun began.

My list of the GREATS from the trip!

1. Endlessly visiting, playing games and getting to know our friends better.

2. Eating amazing cabin cooked meals prepared by great cooks. (Us)

3. Skiing with everyone, especially Elle and Ava, they were troopers and did such a good job!

4. Our Family dance party! this is always a must and is usually a highlight. Dancing is good for the soul. We all now know every line dance ever invented and we can party like no one else!!

5. The Easter egg hunt!

6. Staying up late one night with Scott, Richard and Chris and having a great discussion. I really enjoyed laughing until it hurt but also the great insight from good friends. I AM SOOOOO DONE (that is for Scott)

7. Playing Pin Ball. Congrats to Isaac who won the high score in the pin ball tournament and will receive $10.00.

This is Isaac and Olivia who battled it out until the bitter end....Isaac prevailed

8. Great visits with Tana, Karen, Jenny and Cherie....I love the great wisdom they have and had fun laughing about everything. I really love each of them. (Didn't get a pic of Jenny as she came late)

9. The hot springs, from the Burg to the Lobster pot. Also Chris and Scott swimming down the river by the hot springs, I think the water was 40 degrees and we all thought they were crazy but they had a blast.

10. Going off a huge jump and catching 3 feet of air on the snowmobile with Alyssa (5), Elle(6) and Logan(6). My favorite part was, as we landed safely my heart was racing and I was waiting to hear one of them start crying, Elle screams....SWEEEEEET AIR, Lets do it again, so we did, 5 or 6 more times. It was a blast!!

11. Ava (3 years old) telling me that I needed to "relax" as I am taking my first ski run down the mountain with her in tow. Taking a 3 year old can be a little nerve racking and children, like dogs, can sense fear.

12. The 11 hour drive with all the girls asleep in the car, Chris and I had some great talk time.

13. Our pet fox that came up to the cabin every night to see us and get fed some leftovers.

14. The girls getting chased by our friendly fox as they are out snowmobiling at night. They were screaming so hard that we all thought that someone had been killed or seriously maimed. (We can't figure out what kind of parents let kids snowmobile at night in bear, coyote, and mountain lion territory......I think we had lost our minds.) They had fun and came back in one piece.

15. Quiet time sitting by the fire reading.

16. THE MALT STOP in Pagosa and boy did we ever stop.....every day. I think I gained 10 lbs.

17. The fact that it was so hot and sunny the whole time that we could ski, sled and snowmobile without our coats on!!

The Not so Greats of the week!

1. The 14 mile, dirt road bumpy. drive up to the cabin. It was the longest 14 miles of our life!

2. The fact that the kitchen sink had no water for the first 2 days, there was no hot water on one side of the cabin for the first 3 days and one of the toilets was broken. Oh we were happy when we turned on the kitchen sink and hot came out....no dishwasher so we were washing everything in cold mountain water. burr

2. Drama!!! there were 9 girls under the age of 13 there, need I say more.

3. Me getting the "party foul" award for making whole wheat pancakes and forgetting to clean up. Sorry Scott and Cherie!

All in all it was AMAZING. We came home tired and happy. I love being with our friends and seeing the kids bond together. Most of all I loved the family time skiing, snowmobiling, sledding and just laughing a lot......we like to laugh and there was plenty of it.