We are all smiling and look pretty happy here, right?
This was on Saturday afternoon.
A full 30 hours after we arrived in Breckenridge for a spontaneous winter "vacation" with friends.
By the time we took this picture, enough time had passed for us to recover from the nightmare that occurred as we attempted to get to our destination. So I think that in this picture, we were actually happy!
But let's start at the beginning...
By nature, Vance and I are about the least spontaneous people on earth. We analyze and plan and evaluate risk versus benefit for just about every facet of our lives. Sometimes I exhaust my own self just thinking about how un-spontaneous and fun I am!
So when some friends from our church asked if we wanted to join their families on a ski "vacation" to Colorado, our initial thoughts were...
"It will be too much work."
"It's not enough time."
"It's too much to pack."
"We don't even have ski gear."
"Our kids are awful in the car."
"It will be freezing."
And on and on with the negative thoughts.
When our kids overheard us talking about the invitation, their responses were different. They sounded more like...
"Pleeeaaase!"
"I want to skeet!"
"Yes, it will be so much fun!"
It was after I acknowledged how negative Vance and I tend to be in these types of situations that I decided we could change ourselves and try to become more fun; more spontaneous; more like our cooler and younger friends!
So we said yes and I spent about 2 weeks gathering gear and packed our mini-van to the gills with luggage and supplies.
And off we went for a fun "vacation".
We left Wichita at 5 pm on Thursday; hoping to drive with sleeping kids and no traffic. All went relatively well until we passed through Denver. That's when things went south.
Although the forecast showed no snow, it seems a mini blizzard was ensuing. The roads were wet and icy; causing us to drive between 25-30 mph all the way to Breckenridge. Given that it was already around 1 am and we were exhausted, this sloooowww trip was pretty stressful. After driving for about 2.5 hours at those infuriating speeds, we finally arrived in Breckenridge to snow covered streets, crazy winds, and freezing temperatures.
But... we were almost to our cabin.
Or so we thought.
As we ascended the mountain towards our cabin, we found our minivan trying to push itself through 6-8 inches of fresh snow. Despite plenty of "Hail Mary's" and similar prayers, it finally gave up and got stuck.
Totally and completely stuck at 3:45 am.
So Vance did the only thing he thought would work... he backed our van filled with 4 children DOWN the mountain... the same way we had come up. There is an alternate way to get to the cabin and he thought it might be more traveled and easier to navigate. So after backing ourselves all the way down, we headed towards the other route. All this while the winds blew like we were in Kansas and made for several complete "white outs" while we drove.
Hopeful though, we started the ascent from the other direction.
And we soon found ourselves stuck again.
More stuck than we were the first time.
This is not a good scenario for someone with anxiety issues (me!) and is a true test of patience for parents who have not slept all night. But we tried to remain calm as we called 9-1-1 and waited for the highway patrol to arrive.
When they did, they decided it would be best to transfer me and the kids into their patrol cars and attempt to get us to the cabin in their snow-equipped vehicles. About that time, Abby started to puke. As I held a bowl in front of her, Noah started to moan. Shortly after, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out. After I screamed and hit him, he came to and immediately began puking too. All this was going on while Vance and the highway patrol guys started trying to take car seats out of the van to put in the patrol cars and freezing cold snow was blowing everywhere inside our van.
After about 30 minutes, we finally got everyone out of the van and into two different patrol cars.
I won't go into a description of the artillery that separated the front from the back seats in these vehicles. All I could do is pray that my oldest "babies" were not completely freaked out as they drove away in a patrol car without a parent.
I followed in a separate patrol car with the littlest "babies" and Vance stayed with the stuck van; hopeful to get it towed.
We began the ascent again, back the original direction, to make our 3rd attempt to get to this cabin! Meanwhile, through the glass window lined with rifles, I hear poor Abby puking again!
We did eventually make it to the cabin... but not up the driveway...only to the snow covered street in front of it. This was the point at which I carried 4 kids (one covered in puke), through snow that reached my mid-calf up, what seemed like a 1/2 mile driveway into a FREEZING cold cabin! From there, there were paramedics who came (at the insistence of one of the patrolmen) to check out the kids, several calls to towing companies (several of which would not come due to the "white out conditions"), a search for blankets that would keep us warm, and finally...
at 6 am, 14 hours after we left Wichita, we slept!
Vance finally made it to the cabin with our towed mini-van and luggage sometime around 7 am and I guess that's when our "vacation" officially began.
So much for the spontaneity and "go with the flow" attitude I had hoped to refine on this "vacation"!
Nevertheless, the "vacation" did continue and we did have some fun despite our fried nerves and exhausted spirits.
After spending a day recovering, we finally got the chance to enjoy the snow and get ready for the big skiing debut.
We started off with getting our skis and helmets rented. They told us that Molly got the smallest pair of skis they had and that they rarely even rent them out! And Noah... he was less than thrilled about the helmet that "gave him a headache."
Next on the agenda of "fun" was tubing!
In the spirit of that desired "focus on the positive" thing that I'm trying to work on, I'll skip the description of how long it took to get everyone dressed in their ski clothes from inside the van. And I'll even refrain from sharing the details of how I stood in the blizzard for almost an hour attempting to get pictures... most of which ended up looking like this!
In all honesty though, the kids LOVED tubing and even Vance enjoyed it, despite the blizzard-like conditions! He got to spend some special time with Emily and Molly while Noah braved the "steep" hill with Jackson and Jared!
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| {the entire crew of 11 kids!} |
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| {the entire crew; including our fabulous babysitter!} |
That evening, we dined in town at Bubba Gumps. It was cute seeing the kids warm themselves up by the fire as we waited for a table of 18 (which turned into a table of 13 because another kid succumbed to the puking tradition, but again, {insert sarcasm} I only focus on the positive).
Finally, the next day was the BIG day... ski school! Once again, we look happy and are smiling. That's because we actually made it inside the ski school building! Again, I'll choose not to recount the many complaints and tears and outright refusals to walk that occurred as we attempted to make it from the parking lot in town, onto the gondola, and into the ski school building!
At any rate, I fully expected to get at least one phone call from the ski school telling me that someone (most likely Molly) was not having it. But surprisingly, that didn't happen! They went up those stairs and I didn't hear anything until I went to peek on them at pick up late in the afternoon!
Molly in Action
She seemed happy to be there, but really wanted to go on the chair lifts! Her instructor brought her over to me so that she could tell me that "we have to practice so I can go on those (pointing to the chair lifts)!" She definitely has some work to do before that happens!
Emily in Action
She seemed to struggle a bit more than some of the others in her class, so I was concerned that she might not be having fun. But when I asked her if she wanted to go the next day, she enthusiastically replied YES! So she spent 2 full days working on the "magic carpet" and the "bunny hills".
Noah in Action
Not surprisingly, Noah did the best. Despite his own frustrations with himself for not getting to go on the lifts the first day, he agreed to go again the next day. He got to spend the second day in school going on the lifts! And when Vance picked him up prior to lunch, he spent the rest of the 2nd day on the slopes with his dad! He even went down a BLUE!
While the big kids skied, the littlest ones got to have some fun together with Kathleen. It was Abby's birthday, so she and Alyson played with Play Do!
After a spaghetti dinner for 18, we sang Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl and served yummy cookies to everyone! Abby thought she was pretty special!
To end an exciting day, the little girls decided to perform a "concert" for us; organized by Emily, Krissi and Mary. They did some hand clapping games and sang a little song from school. It was pretty cute!
So what did I do?
Well, I couldn't ski or tube, so I organized, carried gear, grocery shopped, cooked, cleaned and did laundry. But I did manage to enjoy some relaxation...
Vance treated me to a 90 minute prenatal massage! Based on the answers on my survey, I'd say I needed it!
While we had lots of challenges (getting stuck two more times in that same spot, altitude sickness, a biting incident that induced me to hours of tearful "parenting frustration", losing a set of skis and having to pay for them, losing a ski coat, and a blow up of gargantuan proportions from me that I'd rather forget!), overall, everyone enjoyed themselves! The kids thought it was great fun to be on a "vacation" with their friends and it was neat to see how much they enjoyed this new experience!
I keep putting "vacation" in quotes because I have learned that there when you travel with kids, there are "vacations" and then there are "trips". This excursion definitely fell into the latter category... something Kathleen apparently knew right from the beginning!
Even though this was most definitely a TRIP, it's one that we will likely attempt again. After all, we need another opportunity to work on our spontaneity and "go with the flow" attitudes because despite my best hopes, we miserably failed in that regard on this trip!
