Vacation Memories

The suitcases are unpacked, the laundry is finished, the kids are getting along and the house is clean. Life is good!

To recap our vacation week, we began bright and early for the drive north and plugged our destination address into the trusty GPS. (This was clearly a mistake, although it turned out fine in the end.) As our GPS showed our route guidance on the navigation screen, we mindlessly followed as if the GPS was now acting as our brain. We drove confidently through Flagstaff and instead of continuing north on what would have been the most direct route, we mindlessly followed the GPS and headed east towards New Mexico. As excited as the kids were for CO, they were just as excited (go figure) to stop at the four corners on the way. They talked excitedly about how fun it would be to stand in all four states at once and what if they brought a four-square ball so they could each be in a different state playing together. Dad decided this was a good thought, except there would be no out of bounds. Hmmm...this is true. Anyway, as we started to check in with our own brains, we discovered that our trip north would take us through New Mexico and quite a distance from the four corners. Stopping there on the way to CO would not be happening. We'd have to hit it on the way home.

Of course Wade and I, being the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of people we are, do not carry maps. So, we adjusted to the slight delay in travel time and settled in for a long trip, keeping good attitudes and assuming responsibility for the giving away of our own brains. 

We reached our destination, the beautiful Durango Mountain Resort on Sunday evening. We got an embarrassingly great deal on a two bedroom condo...much, much cheaper (I am frugal) than a hotel, which because of our large family size, requires we must have two rooms. The views from our 5th floor condo were breathtaking and the kids were immediately impressed with the fact that when you ran cold water in the bathroom, it was ice cold. They all clamored around the sink to discuss this amazing fact. It's true that in AZ, to get water this cold, we would need to refrigerate it over night. Our cold water at home is warm enough to bathe in.

Once we could all digest the cold water phenomenon, we headed outside to take in the gorgeous property and grab something to eat. Many things were already closed and this is when we discovered that they were an hour ahead of us. We get so lazy in AZ, never having to adjust our clocks and we are always surprised when we travel to another time zone. We ate a quick dinner and made our way to bed somewhat early, so we could get up and start vacationing.

Our first full day was left open for exploration.  We immediately got lift tickets to ride up so we could take the Alpine Slide down. (The link is a virtual ride on the slide) After overcoming a few tears from one child afraid to ride the lift and another afraid to slide down "too fast", we all had a great morning on the mountain. I need to add here that the two frightened children were soon going up the lift together, without parents, and the one afraid of going down too fast flipped his entire body and sled over the edge of the slide once, stating that it was "cool" to go that fast. He ended up with not a scratch from his ordeal and we had to remind him to slow down! 

Later in the day, we met up with AZ friends who were also vacationing in Durango and we all enjoyed browsing through the shops, eating dinner together downtown. The weather, about 80 degrees, made our time walking through the shops quite enjoyable. For us, this was a very cool summer day!

Early the next morning, we hit the road for the train station, boarding at 7:30 AM for a three and a half hour trip to Silverton, CO. The train was wonderful and traveled past the most amazing scenery we had ever seen. Apparently there had been a female grizzly hanging out near the tracks at one point, but she did not make herself visible when we drove by. Drats! Actually, the only wildlife I was able to catch was a pesky mosquito perched on my arm, leaving me with a nice little bump as a souvenir. Even despite the lack of visible wildlife, there were plenty of great sights to see and we all enjoyed the experience. By the time we reached the old mining town of Silverton, we were ready for lunch, which we grabbed as soon as we disembarked from the train. Shortly thereafter, we boarded a van and were driven to the river rafting bus.  Woohoo!

Soon, we were headed to the river, packed like sardines into the rustic river bus along with 50 other excited tourists listening to directions given to us by young, strapping, sweaty, leathery looking young men who would soon be in charge of our lives on the river. Immediately upon arriving at the river, we quickly strapped ourselves into our life jackets and headed toward an open raft. Our guide, Alex, was quiet and helpful, giving our family a quick overview before shoving off.

As we headed down the river, Wade and I began to ask Alex about his life and to our surprise, Alex had just discovered Durango and was taking the summer to live the outdoors life before heading back to the East coast, where he teaches at one of the New York State universities. He worked the river during the day, a restaurant at night and would be taking off with his younger brother (a professional musician) for a month long hiking trip. To say the least, Alex was an interesting guy and I admired his passion for living life to the fullest. 

Our 2 hour trip down the river was fun, exciting at times, blissfully uneventful in terms of injury and something we were all glad we did while in Colorado. Another side note, our family - especially Wade and I - play a game called, so who did he/she look like?  This is very entertaining for us and surprisingly, we are always amazed that we frequently come to the same answer. This time, I didn't even ask the question and just blurted out, "Didn't Alex look a lot like Jesus?" Everyone laughed and exclaimed that they thought the same thing and we joked about what good hands we were in while on the river!

Despite the fact that only Buckley went swimming in the river, all of us were soaking wet. We made the drive back to our room where we showered and got into dry clothes before having dinner. I remember specifically that this particular day felt like it was 48 hours long. We packed about at much into one day as anyone could have and it was great!

The next morning was check-out time and we were all a little melancholy. The kids were definitely ready to move to Durango and Wade and I were just so enjoying the peacefulness of our time away.  The kids packed up their bags and stacked them by the front door.  Wade took the kids down and got them passes to ride the lift and the slide three more times before we left. As they played on the mountain, he and I finished packing out the room and loaded the car. We grabbed a coffee and sat at the bottom, watching our happy kids enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

We all sat outside and grabbed a sandwich before riding the lift one more time. This time we rode the scenic route, which took us farther up the mountain and then back down - about 40 minutes total. The kids each paired up while Wade and I went up together. The peacefulness of the mountain and the beauty of our surroundings were just such music to my soul. If I could have, I would have stayed on that lift the whole day!

On the way down the mountain after leaving our room, we stopped at the house that our AZ friends were renting and got a tour of their cute, rustic abode. After saying goodbye to them, we headed into town.  Wade whispered that he wasn't ready to go, so we hit the town in search of another room, ending up at a condo village near downtown in a condo that slept six for another screaming deal. We dumped our stuff and off we went, back into town for one last night. 

After allowing the kids to each pick one souvenir (this took absolutely forever) we found a roof-top restaurant and had dinner. After dinner, we found a photography studio that took old western photos and decided that it would be a great souvenir for us to take home. We all had a ball stepping into old fashioned clothes and the kids were eager to get their hands on a gun. The picture turned out great and we were all glad that we did it!

After one more night in Durango, we set out early the following morning for home. This time, we did not allow the GPS to completely take over and programed in the correct route that would ensure a stop at the four corners.  Colton was the most excited when we finally reached our destination, completely in the middle of nowhereville. The Navaho Nation now cashes in on the stop and after we forked out $18 to stand on the little plaque, we got in line behind at least 10 other families all waiting for a photo. Unfortunately, one family from the East coast decided that everyone needed an individual photo and then the family needed to take another 198 more photos before they would depart from the center. I mumbled something about a timer and the couple in front of us turned around to high five me. It didn't help that after enjoying a week of 80 degree weather, we were now baking in full sunshine and air temps of plus 110.

Anyway, Colton left happy and the kids now have the four corners memory. I'm not planning to ever go back, but I am glad they got to experience it. 

On the way home, I read the most amazing book! I say this because my friend wrote it, I couldn't wait to read it and truly, it's wonderful. (This is the friend I mentioned some posts ago who is a spectacular mom to triplets...the one who got bitten by our snake.)  After the journey that she and her husband went through to have these precious children, she wrote a fascinating, frank, funny, honest portrayal of their experiences. For anyone experiencing infertility or multiple birth pregnancy, this is a tremendous read and should be for sale in the office of every high risk OB-GYN. The book, TripleFun, is available on Amazon.com and I think I may just need to write a review very soon!

As I read Lia's book and looked at the sweet photos of her babies, who are now 13, it was an ever present reminder that earthly time is so fleeting. How can it be that these days run so quickly into weeks and the weeks melt seamlessly into months, even though we purposefully try to slow down?

I'm a firm believer that the most we can build through the falling sands of time are memories...memories of time spent with loved ones, of helping those in need, reaching out to others and connecting with friends and family.

Right now, I'm taking the many pictures we took in Durango and building a photo book so we can all look back on the precious memories of our special time together, ever grateful for the many blessings we are given. 

All is grace!