A Change of Scenery

When people go to work, they leave their home and go to their office or place of work.  Then when they return, they can recoup at home to get ready for their next day away from home.  Well, for a stay-at-home mom, my home is my work place.  It's hard for me to relax at home.  There is always a project to do, something to be fixed, organized or cleaned.  So to really relax, I need to pack a suitcase and go!

Of course, going some where is work too, but it's well worth the work to me!  After a busy and full Christmas season, I was ready for a break from life at 5836.  So since we had a long weekend with MLK day, we made plans to head up to Grand Lake to stay at a friend's cabin for the weekend.  We planned to get the kids out of school early on Friday so we could get up there before dark.

Friday morning, kids leave for school, husband leaves for work and I get to work packing!  My morning was a bit crazy, but I had all the kids picked up by 1pm and we were in the car ready to go by 1:30!  No complaints on the drive up, the kids watched a movie in the back and I plugged in my iPod and took a little nap while Mike drove us!

We managed to get the van stuck in a snow bank in front of the cabin almost immediately.  Not off to a good start!  I knew this would frustrate Mike and hoped it wouldn't ruin the weekend for him!  It took us about 45 minutes of digging and pushing and then digging and pushing some more until finally the van was back up on the snow packed road.  Phew!!  With that behind us, we were moving forward to fun times!

One of my favorite things about using our friends cabin is the wood fireplace.  I've never had one before in my home, so it is a treat for me.  I really enjoy sitting by the fire and reading!  My book of choice for this trip was "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers.  My problem now is that I'm half way through and back home again with little time for reading and it's a really good book!  I want to see how it ends!!

We always have to go to the sled hill in Grand Lake.  It's a pretty big hill and you can fly if it's packed down, which it was on Saturday morning. 

Anna started midway, so not too fast!

The scenery was beautiful...

Isaac, Sarah E and Anna at the bottom of the sled hill

The kids at the top of the sled hill

The kids wanted to build a snow fort, I think what they ended up with is more of a snow cave!

We heard about Sol Vista's 'free' tubing hill and wanted to give that a try, but the two older kids really wanted to tube in Fraiser.  So after much discussion, we decided to give the 'free' hill a try and it that wasn't enough, we'd go to the hill in Fraiser.  Turns out the 'free' hill was okay, but really it is designed for the kids at the bottom of the ski slope to play on while mom and/or dad are skiing.  

Here comes Isaac!

So off to Fraiser it is!!  Mike, Sarah E and Isaac tubed while Anna and I got a few things at the store and came back to take pics and video.

Ready to go!!

They had a blast and Mike was even glad we spent the money on the 'big' hill!! :-)

Monday morning it was time to clean up and head out.  We washed sheets and towels, vacuumed, washed dishes, packed and loaded the car.  We were on the road by 10:45ish.  Of course everyone was already hungry by 11:30 so we stopped at McDonald's in Winter Park.  While eating, I overheard the lady behind me on her phone saying the road was closed!  What!!!  So we sat there and began thinking through what to do.  For now, we thought we'd kick around in WP in the shops to give us more time to think and ask around.  After a couple of phone calls and much discussion, we decided to turn around and go back to the cabin Grand Lake for one more night.  We had heard we could go an alternate route but I was worried by the time we drove all the way over there, I-70 would be either packed with cars or closed.  Watching the news that night proved my thinking!!  Stories were being shared of 6 to 10 hour drives back to Denver from a day of skiing!!  Yuck!

Of course we had to try on some cool hats & wigs while looking in the shops!

So we got back to the cabin, totally unloaded the car again because there was something in every bag or container we needed, of course!! :-)  It was really snowing hard!  We decided it would be fun to go for a walk in it, so we all got our snow clothes on and headed out!

Ready for our walk! Boaz loves the snow!

Isaac claims this snow plowed hill 'his fort'!

The girls attack Isaac's fort!

We made it about halfway to the sled hill and decide, "Hey we should go sledding!"  So Mike hustled back to get the van with the sleds and met us along the road to go sledding one more time!

Mike sleds down the street next to the sled hill!

A good look at why the roads are closed!  We can barely see the mountains!!

One more night, I read by the fire one more night and Sarah Elizabeth....she played her Gameboy in her snow cave!  To each his own!!

We set our alarms for 6am so we could get these kids back to school!!!  Woke up to find out both routes home were closed, Berthod Pass (the road that closed Monday morning) and a large section of I-70.  Now what!  We wait around.  7am, still closed.  8am, still closed.  By now the kids are in snow clothes playing out back because they were up and ready to go so early...I'm enjoying a little more of my book and Mike is continuously checking the website for update info!  Finally, Mike yells out I-70 is open and we begin the process of repacking and somewhat cleaning up!

We were on the road by 9:45, kids are happy we are going the long way home, guaranteeing them another day off from school and onto a highway we've never been on!  It turned out to be a beautiful drive.  The scenery was breathtaking.  This picture doesn't even do it justice!!

Green Mountain Reservoir on Hwy 9

Once we got to Silverthorne for a 'potty' break, we decided to go ahead and eat lunch.  After all, it was 11:30 and Sarah E has lunch at 10:15 anyway! :-)  And little did we know what our lunch break allowed us!!  We were back on the road and now on I-70 at 12:15 and just a ways down the road, we get into traffic.  We call 511 and find out the interstate is closed up ahead due to a multi-car accident.  I wonder where we would have been if we didn't stop for lunch!!  We are rerouted along a side road that runs parallel with the interstate and we see all the cars, all the people out of the cars on their cell phones, looking up ahead to try to see why the traffic wasn't moving.  We felt so bad for them, wishing we could help them over to where we were.  We were only going 15mph, but we were moving and they were not!!  It was a short inconvenience for us, but we were home around 2:15.  Lots of memories of our adventurous trip to Grand Lake.

So how's that for a change of scenery!!  I think I'll stay home this weekend!