Surrendered and Surrounded...: VACATION!!!! The Beginning

This year we actually took a vacation in the mountains. Our "vacations" typically consist of going back to Kansas and visiting family, but this year we had heard about there are places that provide places for pastors and their family for free or for a great deal. In the spring we decided to check these places out through Focus on the Family. We found that there is a couple who has a cabin in the mountains near Bailey Colorado, so Jeff gave them a call. They said that the summer was pretty open at this point so we could pick anytime. After taking a month or so to decide we came up with two different weeks. A week in July or the second full week in August. I think our preference was the July week but when Jeff called we could have only been there for three days but in August we could have the whole week.

Looking back, God knew that we were going to be busy in July with mom and dad, AND we needed this week after the busy summer and before the school year started. Going into the vacation I just wanted to veg all day, every day, but I knew that wouldn't work for the kids. I then thought we could do something each day for maybe half of the day and then we could have the rest of the day to veg. Jeff had also decided to take a technology fast, no computer, no cell phone. We then decided to do it with the kids also, no TV. I had originally planned on catching up on my blog but when I was there, I didn't feel like it. It did help that there was no cell phone coverage.

Now, money is really tight so I precooked meals and I only packed meals that would be easy to pull out and get ready. Who wants to spend their whole vacation cooking...I don't. We only planned on eating one meal out and the rest was going to be at the cabin or going to be a picnic. The kids got to even pick out "special" cereal, as in cereal that comes in a box and not in a bag! It was a week of good eating!

I had decided to take Sunday, August 9, "off" in advance. I knew that the kids and I were going to have a long day and night at HeavenFest on Saturday, and I knew that there would be a lot of preparation to do and we wanted to be able to head out as soon as Jeff got home from church.

Jeff asked if we would need the topper and I said, "I don't know, maybe." For some reason, in my head I was thinking since we were only going 1 1/2 hours away we wouldn't have that much stuff. We needed the topper! We had that van packed so full the kids hardly had any room to get in! I then realized that when we usually go on vacation we don't take all of our food for five days.

We got left a little later then we wanted but we pulled in to the cabin around 4:30. It took about 15 minutes, once we got off of the highway, to travel the mountain roads, but it was a beautiful drive.

We didn't really know what to expect with this cabin in the mountains. My sister even asked if there was running water and indoor plumbing because you don't always know. I told her that there was at least a bathroom because we were left instructions about it. This cabin was big for a cabin and it was beautiful. We could tell right away that this was going to be an oasis for our family.

The Front