Yeah, so it was nuts. But we had a lot of laughs along the way. And some tears…maybe from at least everyone once (including Clint and I). Sometimes I forget the reality that we have 5 kids that are 6 years apart in age, with the bottom 4 only being 3 1/2 years apart in age and sometimes my expectations are a lot higher then they should be. But I’m slowly learning. 
Our “vacation” was really more of a road trip to Ouray so that I could run a mountain (because that’s what every logical mom of 5 young kids does). The car trip alone was a little over 6 hours, and we all know that everyone loves car trips. Long story short everyone made it alive and no kid was left on the side of the road….and I won’t divulge if that was ever a thought along the way.
Ouray is a great little mountain town. Everything however is uphill from wherever you are in town. It doesn’t matter where you are at or if you walked uphill to get to where you are it will be uphill to get back or to wherever else you are going. And our kids love adventure and hiking and exploring….but like every kid sometimes there might be associated whining with going uphill. Nevertheless we went on a couple of hikes which were not real long but everyone really enjoyed and had fun with (despite the little whining associated with it).
We also did a family photo at one of those places where you dress up like a cowboy or saloon girl. I vetoed being a saloon girl and so we were all made bank robbers. I hope the poor lady that got us all dressed and arranged got a bonus that day. I think she had plans to take a number of different photos in order for us to pick out the best one….she only got three shots off before mayhem ensued (complete with Coppelia throwing herself on the ground and kicking and screaming.) She wanted to know if we wanted to wait a few minutes and try again….at that point we said no, we would just take whatever was the best of the three she got. The first had Coppelia screaming and lunging off of Clint, the second had all of us recovering from that and the third is what we went with…I was trying not to laugh, Caedmon’s vest was falling off, Edric’s bandana had fallen off and Paxton appears to be shooting himself in the head with his gun. And you know what? It was perfect.
We went swimming at the hotel that was associated with the condo we stayed at. I think there is suppose to be a charge to swim in the pool since we weren’t actually staying at the hotel but at the condos on the other end of town, but when I checked in I mentioned being in the car for 6+ hours with 5 kids and the lady just slid me the pool pass across the counter and said “here, you’ll probably want to use this”. The kids loved swimming, the first night we had it all to ourselves and even the afternoon after the race it wasn’t busy at all. It was just good to laugh and splash and enjoy each other.
Staying in a condo meant that we cooked most of our meals there, but we did go out our last evening there after the race and actually it went pretty well. It was a little hamburger joint and maybe it was the promise of visiting the chocolate shop afterwards that helped but it almost made me brave enough to consider going out to a restaurant at home more often. Almost (I’m not that crazy).
And so that’s a brief take on our little 4 day adventure. Yes it was long car rides, and no one slept the first night or the third night, and everyone came home with a nasty cold, but you know what, despite the craziness of it all and at times the frustration we made some memories and had fun and that’s what we are all going to remember. And besides, we make a pretty awesome looking team of bank robbers if you ask me.
Hiking Mommy 