Spring Break

Spring vacation was awhile back now (March 24-28), but I just ran across these photos on Zan's computer and realized it was an experience I don't want to forget.

Our original plans were to take the kids to Disneyland, but we just weren't feeling right about it. Zan said he knew how much I wanted to get up to Spokane to do some family history stuff, so we thought we'd go to the amusement park up in northern Idaho (right across the border from Spokane), but it doesn't open until May. I told him that I just wanted to get away with the family and have some quality togetherness time. We started doing a search online for cabins in Washington, and we came across the Three Bears Lodge. There are three houses they have for rentals near the Mount Rainier National Forest. Nowhere near Spokane, but it filled the requirement of family time together.

The only one they had available during the dates when we could go was the Dancing Bears Lodge (please click on the link; it's a great place!). We left Sunday afternoon and arrived two and a half hours later. We were so thrilled with our accommodations. The house was huge and so nicely kept. It was more than perfect for our crew.

We spent that evening just hanging out as a family.
On Monday, we went up to Mount Rainier National Park. We arrived there in about ten minutes and went from nice dry ground to snow. We explored and played around and threw snowballs, the usual snow kind of stuff. We went into a little visitor's center they have there. When we first entered, there was a glass case with a stuffed mountain lion in it. Teagen wouldn't go in at first. Once we coaxed him in, he said, "Woof. Woof," to it as if he were greeting our dog. I guess he then felt that since it didn't answer him, it was okay.

We walked around looking at the photos of people who first explored Mt. Rainier (I love that kind of stuff). It was funny to see the first woman who climbed it back in the early 1900's and the dress she climbed the mountain in. I'm always awestruck by old photos and like to imagine what was going on before and after the photo was taken.

Monday afternoon we went up again to try to plan the rest of the week--inner tubing, snowshoeing, etc. The mountain was gorgeous! The snow was a blast. When we got back to the house, we had a barbecue.

On Tuesday, we took a family vote. The kids just wanted to have a day to relax at the house. Zan and I were out voted. We really wanted to go snowshoeing that day.

In hindsight, we wish were had exercised our veto power, but we only reserve that for really special occasions--this, now that we think about it, was one of those.

It had snowed a little bit each day, but the serious snow started on Wednesday. It was beautiful!!!

By Wednesday, Teagen was worn out. I put him down for a morning nap, and Zan took the kids up the mountain to snowshoe. Our cell phones didn't work there, and we only had one car, so as he left with the five kids, I got a little panicky. I realized that if anything were to happen to any one of them, I wouldn't know about it until it was too late. It seemed like they were gone forever! Teagen slept all morning and part way into the afternoon. It was very quiet, and were it not for worrying about the rest of the fam, I would have loved every second of it.

We woke Thursday to seven inches of snow. We were sad to, but this was the day we were scheduled to leave. As we returned home, we talked about Disneyland. We were glad for a retreat; a quiet time away. We really needed it. Don't know if we could have handled the craziness this year. This is one trip we will do again, but next year, we've promised Disneyland.