Saturday, February 25, 2012

A Little Time Away

Fri-Tues, 2.17 - 2.21.12
Cle Elum, Bella Lodge

We usually rent a cabin with Kirstin and her family at least once a year. This is the first time that we have done it for President's Day Winter break. I think it will probably be the last too. :-)

We left Friday afternoon around 2pm, from our respective homes and cars. The guys were going to follow after they finished work. It was raining hard up until we got to the pass and then it was dry and clear with just a few flakes coming down. I made really good time. I was very surprised to get to the turn off for the cabin and there is like 3ft of snow everywhere. I can see why it is a snowmobile in/out cabin.


 Here is the side yard with a hot tub and it's own pool w/a water slide. I would love to come back in the Summer and take advantage of the pool and sun!


It was snowing as we got in on Friday and it did not stop until Sunday. It kept snowing and snowing and snowing. We watched the news and found out that a Winter storm had come in and we were going to get at least 7 inches. Saturday morning the pass was closed. Wow, we were not expecting this at all. Though it was beautiful as we were sitting in the warm cabin with the gas fireplace going, drinking hot coffee. :-)
That's Zach out there in the red & black.
And Newman running around with him. Newman loves the snow! Behind Newman is the snowmobile parking area & trails.
 Jaice, Zach & Newman
 Newman found something interesting in the snow. He kept digging and digging. Crazy dog.
 Cute dog.


Now some warming up inside.
 Zach & Payton play really well together. They are either playing some kind of imaginary game or swapping their DSI and iPad. Braxton got a little time to play with them too. :-)

And then zonking out with exhaustion at the end of the day.

Kirk left Sunday afternoon while the pass was open and the getting was good. The weather was warming up, so it should be no problem getting home on Tuesday. Darin left Monday morning and it was a little icy, but otherwise it was fine.

Tuesday morning I got up and checked the pass and it was closed due to high avalanche danger. They would give an update at 10:30am. Well, I never thought that would really happen. I had planned Zach's birthday party for 3pm that day at the bouncy house. This was not good. Kirstin got up and I told her and she just laughed. :-) I figured that we could stay in the cabin until it opened - no one would be coming in to rent it mid week. Well later I called the property management company and it ends up the owner is coming in today. Bummer! So Kirstin and I get it going. We don't know what we are going to do. We don't want two car full of kids sitting on I-90 waiting for the pass to open.

We got in a little birthday celebration for Zach. Monday I went into town and got some fresh cinnamon rolls from the Cle Elum bakery. Yum-O!


Happy 5th Birthday Zach!

At 10:30am the update on the pass is that they would continue to evaluate, but no time for it to open. Then we got a call from the property manager with good news. The owner was stuck too and he said that we could stay as long as we needed and if we had to stay the night then he would give us a discounted rate. We slowed down again. I figured if it wasn't open by 3pm, then we would just stay another night. I didn't want to drive in the rain and dark. Then Darin calls me at 11:30am and says the pass is going to open at 12pm. So we kicked it into high hear. It is raining so we are soaked by the time we have it all packed.

I did remember to get a picture of all the kids just before we got in the car to leave.



We left at 1pm. This was our drive over the pass.
Lots of trucks. We were going between 30-45 miles per hour.

We made it safely over the pass - though there were several crazy drivers that kept on cutting us off. We stopped in North Bend for lunch. Then we headed home. We were packed full. Newman decided he wanted to sleep on top of all the bags so he could see outside. He didn't like being on the floor between the kids. Then Zach had his swords (straws) to keep him busy. We were all ready to be home.

The fun didn't stop when we got home either. Zach had been getting an increasing cough and on Monday I noticed some little red bumps on his back. So I was telling Darin that when I got home and he was looking at Zach and Elissa. They both had little red bumps. Then he walked in our room and told me I had big red bumps on my back. What?! So I run to the walk-in clinic to find out that I have folliculitis from the hot tub. Nice..... Then I take the kids in Wednesday morning and they have the same thing along with their colds. We are all on antibiotics.

It was worth it.

We had a great time.

We just won't go in the Winter again. :-)

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