Tom and Mary stopped by after the game and
Andrew loaded up our bikes in the back of their truck since they offered to
take them out to Colorado for us. I was
able to get all of our clothes for all of us (except what was in our overnight
bag) into our biggest suitcase but then we had big duffle bag full of shoes and
jackets. I stayed up late that night and
got pretty much everything packed and set it all up in the new office including
our hitch haul. I checked on the twins a
couple of times before I went to bed and one time they had the lights on
looking at their Thomas books. The next
time Bennett was asleep but Miles was still awake in his bed. I noticed they both had their diapers off so
I put new ones on them and looked around for their old ones. I eventually found them in the trash can-how
nice of them to take them off, get out of bed and throw them away. J Then it was up early the next
day because Andrew had his long-awaited appointment in St. Louis for his hip at
one. Andrew went into the office early
while I got the kids ready and over to my parents. Actually, Ellie and Lincoln went home with
them after the game the night before, so it was just Jackson and the
twins. I was very grateful they could
watch them so I could go with Andrew to St. Louis. We got there in enough time to meet Lissy,
Sara and the kids for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. Then it was off to his appointment. His appointment was at one and we didn’t get
out of there until after four. A lot of
waiting around. He was diagnosed with a
hip impingement and he even had a very small hip fracture above the hip joint
that was old. They didn’t seem too
concerned with it though. We decided to
do a steroid injection and physical therapy then come back in October to see if
it is any better. We went ahead and
scheduled the surgery so that we don’t have to wait longer if that is what we
decided to do in October. Lucky us, it
is scheduled for December 10th.
We wanted it before the end of the year for insurance purposes and
Andrew thought the timing would be best for him since things would be slower
with court at that time. But of course
things will be pretty hectic on my part.
So we really hope he doesn’t have to have surgery but almost wonder if
it is inevitable.
We
had to head straight home after the appointment since Jackson had yet another
ballgame-he was able to get in on the first tournament game. The game didn’t start until 8:30 though. So we ran by the house when we got home so
Andrew could get his truck and then headed to my parents. Andrew took Jackson to the game while I
loaded up the other kids, ran by Walgreens to get some medicine for altitude
sickness and then home to drop the kids off.
Molly was nice enough to come over and watch them since we knew it was
going to be a late game. She was awesome
and asked what she could do to help me out so she watered the flowers, helped
the kids collect the trash and gave them baths.
She even kept them up late in hopes they would sleep during the car trip
the next day. Jackson’s game ended up
starting late because the game before them ran late. Then it went into extra innings. Jackson struggled a bit this game but still
had some good plays. They put him in as
pitcher but it just wasn’t there. Andrew
said he was doing well while he was warming him up but it just didn’t translate
to the field. So they pulled him partway
through the inning. He later said he was
actually okay with it because he knew he wasn’t doing well. But in the end they pulled out a win. Jackson went rode home with me after the game
and we stopped to fill up real quick. So
it was probably 10:45 before we got home.
Andrew put the twins to bed then the others went while I tied up loose
ends to get ready to leave the next morning.
Andrew
went to the office Wednesday morning to finish some stuff up and then we loaded
up the car. We tried to fit it all
without the Hitch Haul, but it was just a little too much. Then Andrew went to get his hair cut and pick
up some dry ice for the cooler and paint for the mudroom cubbies (it was on
sale and wouldn’t be when we got home) while I got ready and got the kids
ready. We had hoped to leave at 8:30 but
ended up a little closer to nine-not too bad J.
The
first part of the trip was pretty good, just a little bit of whining. Then we stopped in St. Joe for lunch at the
Cracker Barrel and that was, thankfully, pretty uneventful too. We were out of there in about 45 minutes and
without any meltdowns. Then I surprised
them with The Lego Movie and worked on some billing for the office while they
watched that. The rest of the trip took
longer than expected but it went pretty well.
The next morning we drove to Estes Park to meet up with everyone else
and got there a little early. So we
decided to go ahead and do our grocery shopping there so we didn’t have to do
it when we got to Steamboat, especially since I was doing dinner that
night. Then we all met up at McDonald’s
and headed out but we immediately lost everyone. So we started making our way through the
Rocky Mountain National forest which was beautiful. We made a quick couple of stops at lookout
points but still never found anyone from our group.
Cell service was very spotty so we tried a
few calls and texts but they never made it through at the right time. Kristin finally got a hold of us as we were
about 20 minutes from Steamboat and they were still at the top and about 1 ½
behind us. It ended up working out
though because we were able to pick up the keys for the house, get unloaded and
get dinner going. The house was
beautiful and had more than enough room for all of us. So we had a relaxed evening (or most of us
did) trying to adjust to the altitude. I
worked on dinner and unpacking for most of the evening, then cleaned up dinner
and finished unpacking and putting stuff away that night. The kids were all excited to see each other
and explore the house, loudly J.
The twins had a little bit of trouble settling down but I was up late
putting stuff away so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Before I went to bed I went to check on them
and found them like this.
I
finally went to bed around midnight only to hear one of them start crying close
to one. Bennett had woken up and had a
nasty diaper. So I got that changed and
we were all off to bed. Jackson and
Lincoln shared a room while Ellie slept with the girls in one of the bunk
rooms. Everyone slept pretty well but I
still ended up waking up early to random noises. Someday I am going to catch up on my sleep. The twins actually slept in a while which was
great. The next couple of nights were a
little rough, but they eventually started sleeping better through the
night. Andrew was up early, anxious to
get his first bike ride in the mountains done.
He got a little lost and had a crash but he was pretty happy he got to
go. His crash happed when his tire got
stuck in a seam in the road and he went down.
He ended up with some abrasions on his arm and leg but he said he was
fine.
The
kids spent most of the morning running around playing. There are two loft game areas that they
determined were the boy and girl castles.
Andrew’s mom also brought along some games and crafts for the kids to
play with. The girls worked on some
string bracelets while the boys did some bubbles.
We
thought about going to the Fourth of July parade but it was overcast, chillier
morning and with the twins sleeping later if just didn’t happen. We did eventually make it out but the kids
weren’t too thrilled. We walked a bit
around downtown Steamboat and tried to watch a ski jumping competition but it
we couldn’t find a parking space. We did
get to see a few jumps as we were driving around though. So we just drove around a bit to better
familiarize ourselves with the area. That
night we watched the fireworks from the house-some of us on the decks while the
kids set up with some popcorn in front of one of the large windows. The rest of the week was full of fun
activities. Andrew’s mom was always so
nice to watch the kids so they could get in the hot tub and they had a lot of
fun with that throughout the week. They
also played a lot with her crafts, Legos, cars, etc. She was well prepared.
One
funny thing about the house is that it didn’t have air conditioning. I think most of the houses here don’t. But it was a warm week in Steamboat which
meant the third floor would sometimes end up close to 90 degrees later in the
afternoon, especially if the oven was going for dinner. So the rest of the week we did all sorts of
stuff. We went on a couple family bike
rides (minus the twins) which the kids really enjoyed. Lincoln didn’t want his brother and sister
getting too far ahead of him so his little legs were pedaling fast at times. J
Andrew
did a couple bike rides himself which
was awesome while I attempted to run.
Our house was up the mountain a ways, so I would run down about 1.5
miles and then turn around and run back up.
I never made it all the way back up without walking for a while
though. It was tough! Andrew did mention
that he never saw anyone running up that street and he was right. I would see people down on the trails but not
on my way back up to the house. J But it was a good way to start off my next
1000 miles. (Last week I hit a milestone
of getting 1000 miles of biking, running and swimming in since last
August. It may not be that much to some
people but it was big to me J) Andrew and Jackson went on a
hike together part ways up to Devil’s Causeway on morning. We also took the kids over to the Coca Cola
Adventure Zone where they had several different activities to do. Jackson and Ellie both decided to do the
trampoline twice along with the ropes course while Lincoln did the trampoline
once and the ropes course. They had a
lot of fun. Jackson and Ellie finally
became brave enough on the trampoline to do some flips. Once Ellie started, you couldn’t get her to
stop. And Lincoln did an awesome job on
both things for being a little thing-and he loved it. He gets excited when he can do the things the
big kids do.
Probably
the biggest thing we did was our hike up to Devil’s Causeway. We hiked around three miles both ways and up
to an elevation of 11,800 feet (around 3000 feet up). We had the whole crew except Andrew’s parents
stayed behind to watch the twins and Savannah for us. Kristin carried Ainsley in a front carrier,
Annie is pregnant and then we had 7 kids.
Everyone did a great job. Before
our last two ascents, Kristin, Ainsley and Luke stopped in an open flat spot
and hung out there while the rest of us continued on. First we had to trek across some snow and
then make our way up. Again, the kids
were awesome because there were some steep inclines and it was challenging but
we finally made it. Andrew ventured
further out onto the narrow part of the causeway. He wasn’t planning on going across it but was
feeling good when he got up there so he went for it. He didn’t consult about this with me first
and I didn’t realize it until he was already crossing. He just wanted to take the kids one at a time
over to the part where you can crossover, so I was staying with Ellie and
Lincoln while he took Jackson over. So
Annie watched them for me while I ventured further out to get some video of
Andrew. I got there in time for him to
start taking Jackson across. Thankfully
they did go too far across, but enough for Jackson to feel like he accomplished
something. The crossover is just about
four feet across with very steep drop-offs on either side. So we stayed up there for a while, taking in
the view before we started making our way down.
It was sometimes more difficult getting down than it was going up-at
least the first part of it. There was a
lot of slipping and sliding. Ellie cut
her hand on some sort of weed and cried for a while because she still had to
use that hand to grip things as she climbed down. Then Lincoln fell crossing the snow and was
upset for a while. It was about a 5 hour
hike in all with an early morning start (funny side note from our trip
there-Lincoln was asleep but woke up as soon as “Big Green Tractor” came on and
started singing it), so I still think they did great even with a few
upsets. They all slept well on the way
back to Steamboat. Andrew was so happy
that he got to share that experience with his kids.
Another
fun thing the kids got to do was the alpine slide. We rode a chair lift up and then rode down
2400 ft slide in a sled-type thing with wheels.
Jackson and Ellie were able to go by themselves, while Andrew and I took
turns going with Lincoln. They loved
it. And then on the way back to the
house, Andrew dropped the three older kids and I off at Gondola Square so we
could ride the gondola up to the ski slopes and look around. They had fun with it but would have rather
been able to do the trampoline again.
But
soon it was time to head home. It was a
great vacation…getting to spend time with family and all the new
experiences. We left early Thursday
morning and things went pretty well the first part of the trip. Although we did run into a cattle drive that
took us a little bit to get through. But
somewhere around Lincoln, Nebraska we took a wrong turn and ended up having to
change our route a bit. And then the new
route had a detour we had to take. Definitely
not something you want to have to deal with on the trip home but it could have
been worse. My parents did offer to pick
up some milk for us and turn our air down-they said things were kind of quite
around their house since no one was home.
Caroline is back for a little while but she went to a wedding in St.
Louis and Molly headed off to kamp for the month.
Andrew
headed to work Friday morning while I started the process of unpacking. Jackson was eager for me to try to get an
update on a game on his Kindle so he helped with the unpacking too. Then I had all the kids put away their clean
clothes from the suitcases-it definitely helped J.
The kids were excited to see their friends again. Actually, Ty was at our front door at 8am
this morning. Eventually I got everything
put away, laundry in full swing and vacuumed out the car. Then it was off to do our grocery
shopping. I don’t know if it was because
it was close to nap time (actually past nap time but we had to get this done)
but Miles and Bennett were being loud and ornery. I was thankful to get that trip done and then
we went to the car wash so I could scrub all the bugs off of it-lots of
bugs! We finally made it home and the
older three brought in the groceries while I laid the twins down for their
nap. Now we are getting ready to head to
my parents. Some of my siblings are
coming into town for the Killday family reunion tomorrow so it will be nice to
see everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment