This vacation almost seems surreal...like it didn't even happen. Maybe it's because I was so sleep deprived that I don't remember it well. Or maybe because so much happens in 2 1/2 weeks that it's hard to remember the details. Or maybe it's because it was so CRAZY to have a huge blizzard the first weekend in October. Here are a lot of pictures to help me remember all of the fun memories and to share with whomever would like to look at them. :)
October 2-7
The boys had off from school on Thursday and Friday. We decided about a few weeks beforehand to rent a nice vacation home in the Black Hills with some great friends, the Schuttingas. As our leaving day approached, the weather was increasingly different than what we were expecting. Initially we thought that a day hiking and a day at Reptile Gardens sounded about perfect with our boys. And at the last minute, we figured we better throw in some sleds and snow gear. We are thankful that we did!!!
Since we were uncertain how baby Mason would travel on the 6 1/2 hour drive, we decided to leave on Wednesday afternoon and stay in a hotel halfway there. The boys had a great time playing in the pool while we were there.
When we arrived on Thursday, I felt extremely spoiled. I stepped into the kitchen and there were cookies on the counter for us. There were Christmas lights on. The heat was on. The house was very clean, nicely decorated, and it was huge...but cozy. The view up in the mountains was amazing. We toured the whole house and the boys quickly settled downstairs to play in the game room. I can't blame them. It was awesome! Air hockey and Pac Man! We figured that if we got snowed in for a day, we would all be perfectly fine with that. :)
It was getting colder outside and a little rainy, but we wanted to get outside for a little while before the snow started to fall. Mason had to try out his new snowsuit and the hiking pack! My boys are looking good!
Levi wasn't too happy to leave the game room so our hike really only lasted about 5 or 10 minutes. :) And he was also in denial of the fact that it was getting cold. The day before it was in the 80s. So I had to take a picture of him with his winter coat, boots and shorts!
Later in the afternoon Andy, Bethany, Will and Anderson arrived. They brought a huge box of games and dove right in! Since we had decided on eating one meal out, we figured we better do that before it started snowing. As we were closely watching the weather, we were getting more certain that we were going to be stranded...at least for a little while.
After supper, we tucked our boys into bed and went out to enjoy the outdoor hot tub. That was an experience! It was raining and while we were sitting there, we saw the first snowflakes come down!
In the morning, everything was covered with snow. A lot of snow! It was very pretty. There were predictions for up to 70 mph wind gusts, but by the afternoon, everyone was ready to get bundled up and brave the storm. It was amazing how much snow had come down in such a short time.
The electricity had flickered all day so we were nervous about loosing that...but holding out hope that it wasn't going to happen. At least I was. Bethany made warm apple crisp in the afternoon and a delicious meal of pasta for supper. Then we all crashed in front of the television to watch Cars 3.
Once the boys were all cozily tucked in bed for the night, we lost power. Thankfully we found battery powered candles to use as nightlights and some flashlights. And thankfully the fireplace ran on propane so we had a source of heat. Well, I should say it was a good source of heat during the day since we didn't dare to run it all night long for fear of getting carbon monoxide poisoning.
On Saturday morning we woke up and it was still snowing! By this time our guess was that we had somewhere between 3 to 4 feet. We could no longer keep an eye on the weather as we were trying to save battery power on our phones and there was no internet available. Our lives are so connected to having electricity. But when I got up I thought, well at least we have leftover cinnamon rolls so I'll have that and coffee. It sounded wonderful. But when I arrived in the kitchen I realized that the coffee pot wasn't going to work without electricity. And then I also realized that we have wonderful husbands who figured out that if they boiled water on the propane grill outside, they could spoon it over the coffee grounds to make coffee! :) We concluded that our luxury vacation was really more like luxury camping. But I think that I've since concluded that camping without electricity really isn't luxurious. But we survived just fine. We laughed a lot together and played a lot of games.
Nathan and Andy were trying hard to get the driveway cleared. But when there is this much snow EVERYWHERE that was quite a challenge.
We had to crawl on top of the snow! It's the first time that I've ever thought it would be fun and useful to have snow shoes!
Dorian fell in and needed to be rescued. He was literally stuck in the snow.
Without a working refrigerator, we used the snow bank to keep our food cold!
By Saturday afternoon the wind had died down and the snow stopped falling and the view was beautiful!
The view was beautiful and the snow was DEEP! The guys felt it was their job to get the driveway cleared. But this was no small task. Nathan had never driven a bobcat before, but he decided that it wouldn't be that hard to learn and took the liberty to try. After many hours, Bethany and I convinced them that professional help would be on the way soon enough and we appreciated their efforts.
Dorian and Anderson just love baby Mason. It's adorable!
Will and Levi are good buddies!
What a crazy, fun bunch of boys!
On Sunday morning, we heard the plows coming down our road! In the afternoon the owner of our home came to plow out the rest of the driveway with his bobcat. But the interstates were still closed. So we concluded that we weren't going to get home as we had intended by Sunday night, and went outside to play on the huge snow piles!
Mason had his first sled ride.
LOVE this picture of our family of 5!
By Monday morning, we were ready to head out and find electricity. I was looking forward to having a warm shower, lights, hair dryers, heat, microwaves, etc. The roads were clear and the interstate was open! We enjoyed things like putting on a DVD for our boys, texting, making phone calls, and listening to the radio. We also enjoyed a warm breakfast from McDonalds. :) As we were driving we realized just how huge this blizzard was. It was the biggest ever recorded for the Black Hills area! There were tens of thousands of cattle that died. And we saw some of them on our drive. And it was confirmed that we really did get nearly 4 feet of snow where we were at! It was quite an adventure! What great memories!!!
When I got home there were 100 messages in my inbox and I enjoyed being connected to email and Facebook again. :)
I concluded that I don't like living without electricity, that we have some pretty awesome friends, and that Mason really needs to learn to sleep through the night!!! There were times when he would cry and there was nothing that I could do to soothe him. I think on the last night we were there I may have gotten 2 hours of sleep over the course of the night. Why is it so hard to wrap my mind around letting him cry it out to teach him to sleep better? But a couple of nights after we returned that is what we did. It was out of necessity. We ALL needed a good night of sleep for once since Mason has been born. It took a few nights, but I'm happy to say that now he is sleeping through the night and there is one happy momma and one happy poppa here!
Am I still glad that we went? Yes! I'm pretty blessed that Nathan was able to take off a couple of days from work so that we could spend some family time together. I'm blessed that our family has such loving and caring friends. And it was a blessing that we were all safe on our crazy adventure. God is always good to us.
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