fresh mountain air.

2/22/2019









President's Day weekend, 2019! We had high hopes for leaving the snow behind and heading to warmer weather. For reasons that are boring enough not to write, we did not leave the snow behind and decided instead on a "staycation", if you will. We had family from out of town stay at our house and we made the most of the long weekend.

I didn't take any stunning photos, but I feel it's important to share pictures nonetheless.

The Crofts (husband's side of the family) have a humble and authentic family cabin in the mountains that, I only learned last week, was built in the 40's! The Crofts have owned it since sometime in the 90's (I think?) and it is a real gem, just a real beauty of an old worn down rugged quaint and adorable cabin in the mountains. It's where the dogs in the family are buried each time one dies of old age (so far there are four graves) and I like to imagine them there, running free in the mountains and playing together. There is a firepit outside and a fireplace inside and a hiking trail up the mountain and even a sledding trail that Grandpa perfects in the winters!

This is all to say, we decided it would be fun to camp out at the cabin. We are missing camping season oh so much, more than I miss most things, and so this seemed like the closest we could come.

February has a way of dangling Spring on a string just out of our reach. Sunshine! Blue skies! Melting snowmen and patches of grass! Walk out in your t-shirts, feel that sun dance on your skin, close your eyes and shout hallelujah's to the heavens! And then...BAM, she pulls the string away, aka drops six inches of snow from the sky and takes us back to thirteen degree days.

She's so rude that way.

In classic February fashion, the weekend started with blue skies and sunshine and t-shirts. We drove our dirt bike in circles around the parking lot, the hollers of happy children echoing from garage wall to garage wall. We loaded the vehicles and drove to the mountains. We made it up the trail as far as the trucks could go, we parked there and we packed all of our things, sleeping bags and pillows and cots and food and drinks and electric heaters, hiking it all into the cabin. Only seconds after shutting the door behind us with the last of our things, BAM...there goes February, being a real jerk again. Blizzard and wind and buckets of snow falling from the sky!

But I'll give you this: it was beautiful, watching that snowstorm from inside of a quaint cabin, stoking the fire and plugging in electric heaters and wrapping ourselves in blankets while prepping hot dogs and chili, occasionally slipping on fur-lined snowboots to walk outside and gather more wood.

It wasn't the worst, you know?

The kids slept cuddled together in a giant sleeping bag of a bed on the floor next to the fire, and the adults in our cots beside them. Rockie snuggled into my sleeping bag with me and kept me toasty all night long, and Dan woke up occasionally to throw more logs on the fire whenever it faded. We left late the next morning, after a hearty camping-like breakfast of bacon and eggs and sausage and coffee.

It was so lovely, and so needed.

The rest of the weekend consisted of an indoor swimming pool / hot tub (that's the most important part of any swimming area for me, the hot tub), baking cookies and watching the classic 'Return to Me' (which is in the top five of our most quoted movies to date), taking the dogs on walks, and last but not least helping two of the four kids (one being mine) who inevitably came down with some sort of 24 hour stomach flu virus. That part was not fun, but nonetheless, let's call the weekend a win!

I am grateful, if nothing else, that I don't have to bear the weight of winter alone. Grateful for my people and for the memories we make together.

Also, so so so grateful that Spring is almost here!


2 comments:

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