Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Go West, Day 14: Happy Birthday & other matters

I know, another late post. These last two have not been nearly as fun to write as the first ones!

By the time we left the campground--making sure to say goodbye to our new friends first--it was a little bit late, but we didn't have far to go, just 4-5 hours until we were home.

Everyone was in pretty good spirits at this point. The kids played and watched movies, Mr. Fantastic and I started dreaming about what our new, totally redone basement might look like (when we're done, not that day! ha!), and I think everyone was looking forward to sleeping in their own beds that night.

Oh, and one other thing. It was my birthday. Not exactly the best of circumstances for celebration, but hey--a few months ago I got a surprise trip to Florida (I still haven't gotten to blog about that... one day...), so I can't complain. My parents called to tell me happy birthday and said that we would have cake at my mother-in-law's that night. Sounds like a plan to me!

So all-in-all it was going well. And then we got home. And we saw it all for ourselves. It was... overwhelming. I wish I had pictures of the basement, but it just didn't occur to me to take any. A lot of stuff had been moved upstairs (And did I mention the bags of stuff that my parents took home to wash and dry for us? I can't remember... but they did.), but there were still piles and piles and piles of stuff in the basement. All of the carpet was out, and the drywall had been cut out in a few spots--though always low to the ground. Whew. OK. Here we are.

I won't go into the rest of the details of the evening, except to say this... By the time we went up to my mother-in-law's house (she lives two doors down from us, so we walked), Mr. Fantastic was completely overwhelmed. Seeing the basement, starting to unpack, dealing with three kids who were glad to be home and a little slap happy... and then the added bonus of going up to my mother-in-law's to find a nice, clean dog--very excited to have her owners back--who felt the need to go roll in a rotten egg that she found outside somewhere. So he got to give the dog a bath. Not exactly on his to-do list.

My birthday celebration... was a bust. Blah.

(But I still got Florida.)

So that was the end of our great western adventure. Just to bring you up to speed...

  • My mother-in-law's foot is, in fact, broken. And a few days later, my mom broke her leg. We are a non-stop barrel of laughs around here, folks.
  • It took a few days, but we got everything emptied out of our basement. It is now all in our garage.
  • A couple days after we got home, my parents kept the kids overnight (before my mom broke her leg). Mr. Fantastic and I were able to get a lot of basement work done, but more importantly, we went out for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory for a REAL birthday celebration. Yeah, baby!
  • We are now in the middle of picking out wall colors, flooring, and the like for our "new" basement. We are trying to decide whether to go all out and get new furniture as well. Decisions, decisions.
  • And yes, we do want to head west again next year. So we'll get to do this whole series again 12 months from now... hopefully without the flooding...
Thanks for reliving it all with me. ;-) See you soon.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Go West, Day 12 & 13: Eastward, Ho

Happy Monday! Thanks for sticking with me. I know I left you hanging on Friday, and now I've made you wait half the day for the next update. But I'm here!

Let's start with Monkey. I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around this, but... he woke up the next morning 100% FINE. No pain, no swelling, no discoloration. NOTHING. I know that many of you think that I was probably overreacting to the situation in the first place, but I just have to say... you had to see it. It was truly awful. And maybe I am being dramatic, but I honestly, completely, and totally believe that God healed that little boy's wrist. Because there is no way it went from the way it was at 10 PM on Wednesday night to the way it was at 8 AM on Thursday morning. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.

But as for our trip, it was officially over. I couldn't imagine going home after a month, having my hubby working all hours to get caught up from a month off of work, and trying to deal with the basement myself. And even though we had talked about heading home over the course of several days, Mr. Fantastic was just too distracted to really enjoy himself... so we just headed home.

We were a pretty somber family. We were all disappointed that we didn't make it to our "big" destination of Yellowstone, but I think we were all even more upset to miss out on the time with our friends. Mr. Fantastic was preoccupied with the basement, and my mind kept replaying the whole wrist incident and making my stomach turn. What a crew.

Fortunately, the grown-ups were able to rouse ourselves from our funk around late morning and try to cheer up the kiddos. We read together and played and watched movies (well, the kids did), and just generally tried to make it as fun as we could.




We had hoped to make it halfway home the first night, then split the other half up, allowing ourselves some time to relax and play at a campground the second day/night. After a while, that started to seem unrealistic, but we decided to just play it by ear and not make any reservations.

Around 8:00 that night, we started looking for a campground... and then Roo fell asleep... and then the big kids started watching a movie... and Mr. Fantastic said he was feeling pretty awake and wanted to keep driving. We eventually just had the kids lay down and go to sleep, and we kept going. Finally, around midnight or 1 AM (he told me later, because I was already asleep), he pulled into a truck stop and we just slept there for the night. We made great progress, much farther than we thought we would get. (I have no idea where we stopped, somewhere in Iowa, I think.)

And then we woke up the next morning and started up again. Actually, Mr. Fantastic woke up and started driving while everyone else was still asleep.



Slowly the rest of us joined him. That day was a little more cheerful. Even though none of us wanted to miss our trip, the idea of getting home was starting to become appealing.

But first, just a little more fun. We decided to book a campground that night, somewhere far enough that we wouldn't have a super-long drive the next day, but short enough that we could get there in time to enjoy our afternoon.

I'm so glad we did. This was probably the nicest campground we found, other than the state park in Colorado. The sites were beautiful and wooded, the pool was nice, the owners were friendly, and there were LOTS of people around. (All of the other campgrounds were busy, but nobody really seemed to hang around much.)

We spent the afternoon at the pool, then built a campfire (now that we were out of the "danger zone") to cook dinner.




After dinner, Daddy and the big kids went for a walk... and came back with friends! They met some sweet little girls with twins Lamb's age. They stayed and played with us until almost midnight! We played board games, made s'mores, and got out TONS of glow bracelets and accessories that I had planned to spread out through the rest of our trip. It was such a very nice way to end our trip.

Good night all. Tomorrow, we'll be home sweet home...

Friday, July 26, 2013

Go West, Day 11: And then... an unexpected turn


I started my journaling for this day in the morning. Although much had changed by the end of the day, I decided to leave what I had originally written, because… well, the contrast between my expectations and reality is laughable. Now. The stars indicate the end of my original journaling, where I have picked up now to finish telling you about our day. (I still wrote it as if I were writing on that day, just for the sake of consistency.)

I’ve taken over 2800 pictures so far. That is a ridiculous number, especially considering that we’re not even halfway done yet. I really thought I would average about 100 photos per day, but obviously I underestimated myself. Oy vey.

Today got off to a bit of a rough start. After showering and getting dressed, Mr. Fantastic picked up his phone and found a text from his mom: “Do you still have crutches at your house?” That doesn’t sound good. Apparently the dry spell that Colorado has been suffering through has not carried through to Ohio. There it has been raining for almost 2 weeks straight. This morning my mother-in-law was walking our dog, and she slipped and fell. She thinks it is just sprained, but she wants some extra help getting around. We are feeling terribly guilty that she is at home, taking responsibility for our house, our pets, and our business… and now with a pretty bad sprain, from the sounds of it. And we’re here on vacation. I’m thankful to have my parents close by and know that they can step in and help.

**********

My wonderful husband indulged me so much in Colorado. Everything we did in Colorado Springs, we did because *I* wanted to do it. And now today, he and the kids are accompanying me to another place they would never otherwise visit: MOPS headquarters!

 

I joined my first MOPS group when Lamb was just six months old. I had no idea what it was or whether it would be what I was looking for, but it has been a MAJOR part of my life ever since. Even now, when I am not technically in a MOPS group (the moms’ group at my church is independent, not a MOPS group), it is a ministry about which I am passionate and in which I want to remain involved. I was so thankful for the time I could spend talking so some of the women there and making good contacts. Exciting things were discussed, not all things I am ready to share here. But be praying, my friends. I have some hopes and dreams for the foundations that were laid this morning.



Sooooooooooooooo… after our time with the lovely ladies of MOPS, we were ready for lunch AND we were armed with a lunch recommendation from some of the women we had just left: Casa Bonita.

 

Have you ever heard of this place? I had not, but I guess it’s a little bit famous. (I’m not sure how many of you are “South Park” watchers—I haven’t seen an episode since college, and even then I never actually watched it, just saw bits and pieces of it when other people were watching it—but apparently there’s a whole episode about it.) It’s a Mexican restaurant, although you don’t really go there for the food. You go for the experience. I really… I am hesitant to try to describe this place to you, because I feel like I won’t do it justice. Really. It is indescribable. But I’ll give it a shot.

Here’s the big draw:

 

Cliff-diving. Every 15 minutes, there’s a cliff diving show! Inside the restaurant! Sometimes it’s just a “straight” diving show, sometimes they mix in some comedy (like a guy in a gorilla suit). Either way, the kids love it!

 






 

But they do so much more with the kids, too. There was a piñata…

 

…and Black Bart’s Cave (a “haunted house” type of experience)…

…a game room (a la Chuck E. Cheese, complete with tickets and prizes)...


(Roo LOVED this throwing game. If you know him, you know that this is RIGHT up his alley.)
 
...and lots of other opportunities for fun.



 

But even that isn’t all. In addition to the main seating area around the waterfall, there’s a mine room…

(Yeah, I didn't get any pictures of the actual seating in that room... but here's the mine car...)
…a castle room…

 

…and many others that I didn’t capture “on film.” One had a stage for magic shows. Which reminds me, we also saw a small puppet show while we were there. This place was bursting with things for kids to do. We had to DRAG our crew out of there!

After exploring the many rooms of seating and fun, we were astounded at how big the place really was. On our way out, we asked a waitress how many people the restaurant can seat. Turns out, it’s over A THOUSAND! She said that on busy days, they serve over 17,000 people! Is that astounding or what?!? I later read an interesting blog post about Casa Bonita, where the author talks about waiting an HOUR to be seated as if that’s a common occurrence. I’m glad we were there at 1 PM on a Wednesday!

When we finally got back to the campground, Roo and Mr. Fantastic snuggled up for just a quick nap while the big kids and I got everything ready to go to the beach. This was my second bummer of the day—I was hoping to run over and visit a friend who just moved to Denver from our hometown, but we had been promising and promising the kids time at the beach, and I couldn’t hold them off any longer… and Mr. Fantastic didn’t seem too keen on taking all three of them to the beach by himself. My friend and I tentatively planned to have coffee after bedtime, and our family headed down for some beach time.



 

I don’t have a whole lot of pictures from the beach today. Do you know why? Because I was too busy enjoying the beach. At the risk of sounding corny, that afternoon felt almost magical. Roo was a little unsure of the water at first, but before I knew it he was sitting in the water saying, “Kick! Kick!” and thrusting his little feet all around. The big kids made friends with a sweet little boy named Robert, who had a raft, and they all had a ball climbing in and out of it and pulling each other around. And we played in the sand and we played in the water and we just relaxed and loved being together.

When Roo and Monkey decided to take a break from the water, I walked with them over to our beach chairs (and the large amount of gear we had toted out) to supervise the building of a sand castle. And then my phone rang. And I knew what I was going to hear.

Earlier in the day, I had gotten onto Facebook on my phone, and saw a few people complaining about water in their basements. Although we have never had a flooding issue in our house (two exceptions: once when we were building the house 10 years ago, which we resolved; once last year when our septic backed up, so not a rain issue), I got an uneasy feeling about it. I got online again a few hours later, while Roo and my hubby were napping, and saw that a tornado watch was in effect for our hometown area. With my mother-in-law (who lives just two houses down from us) injured, I knew I couldn’t ask her to check our basement, so I thought about calling my dad—but then I couldn’t justify asking him to drive in possible tornado conditions just to satisfy some silly gut feeling with no real basis. I decided I would wait until Mr. Fantastic was up and ask him to call our maintenance guy (my hubby owns rental properties) and see if he would just swing by and check it out to give me some peace of mind. But when he did wake up, he was still a little groggy and grumpy, so I decided to let it go until later… and then we were at the beach and I didn’t want to bother him with it…

And then suddenly I was standing at the beach chairs, talking to Robert’s dad, and my phone rang. And I knew. I picked it up and saw my mother-in-law’s phone number. And I knew.

“I’m so glad you’re answering the phone,” she said. “I don’t have good news.”

Our basement was flooded. Our FINISHED basement—as in, the toy room, the living room (with the TV), our game room (with a pool table), and a full bathroom—was flooded. The whole thing. She had called my parents and told them that she was worried about it because of all the rain, and they came out to check it. My dad had gone into our storage room in the back (the only unfinished space) and found that the sump pump wasn’t working. He was able to get it running, and it started pumping the water out, but the damage was done.

Fortunately, we have a fabulous family. My parents, my brother, and two of my nephews started hauling stuff out. My mother-in-law called a cleanup/restoration company we use through my hubby’s business, and they came right out to get all of the carpets out and cut out any drywall that got wet. My mom and dad, we later found out, even took him several (6 or more) garbage bags full of toys and photos and other random stuff, to dry it out—and in the case of the toys, wash and bleach them, just in case there was any sewer water mixed in. They worked hard to get things under control for us. I know they were hoping that we would be able to just continue on our trip.

Mr. Fantastic came up then, and I handed him the phone so that he could hear it all first-hand. When he got off, we both went through the same range of emotions… from “this is horrible” to “it’s just stuff” to “what on earth are we going to do?” We debated about packing up and leaving right then, driving through the night. We talked about continuing our trip, at least for a few days. But we kept coming back to the reality that Mr. Fantastic was likely to be SLAMMED at work after taking a month off. How could we possibly deal with all of the things we would be facing at home if he had a month of making up to do?

Finally, we just sat down, watched the kids play, and just… sat.

But we knew that we couldn’t go on with the trip. We would be preoccupied, and we needed for Mr. Fantastic to be able to help at home, not to be overwhelmed with work AND the basement all at once. In just a few days, we were slated to meet up with some of our BFFs in Yellowstone, and we would all make the trip home together. So many plans, suddenly out the window.

Lamb took it the hardest. She and her sweet friend Hannah, part of the family we were supposed to meet in Yellowstone, are two peas in a pod. More than any destination or site or activity on this trip, she was excited to spend almost two full weeks with Hannah, whom she typically gets to see just every couple of months. But we finally got her—and Monkey, who was less emotional but still tremendously disappointed—settled down and distracted, and we all just sat rather quietly on the beach, watching Roo push a truck all over God’s creation.

It was 8:00 before we finally packed up and left the beach. Our plans for a beach-side dinner—and my plans for a late-night coffee—were gone. We decided to grab a pizza and sit outside the RV, enjoying our last night in Colorado.

The boys got in the truck first. Lamb and I stopped to wash her feet off, and were lagging behind a bit. As we walked up to the truck, Monkey stood inside with his hand out the window, calling out, “Tickets, please! I need your tickets, ladies!” We giggled and slapped his hand and pretended to give him our tickets.

But if you know 6-year-old boys, you know that a joke that is funny the first time, just gets funnier the more you tell it. So he continued as Lamb got in the truck. He continued as I loaded the last few things in the back. He continued as I walked up to my door. “Tickets, please! I need your ticket, madam!” I gave him “five” and said, “There’s my ticket!” And I got in the truck. I didn’t hear, as I sat down, him saying, “No, wait, Mommy. How about this? ‘I need your credit card, please, Madam!” So I got in the truck. And I closed the door.

But it didn’t close. It bounced. It bounced because Monkey had reached his hand out through the window of the back seat, around the side, and INTO the opening of the front door as I climbed in. I didn’t know his hand was there. He didn’t know I was closing the door. Until it bounced.

I was out of that truck and pulling him out of the seat faster than you could believe. I held him and whispered to him and kissed his hand and stroked his hair. The “mommy guilt” of cutting our trip short combined with the actual guilt of hurting my child (yes, I know, unintentionally), and I was a wreck. We sat and cried together.

The RV park was about a quarter-mile from the beach, so I sat Monkey on my lap as we drove back to our site. I watched his fingers turn purple, and the tips gray, and my stomach turned. When we got out of the truck, I showed them to Mr. Fantastic and he said, “Let’s get some ice on your fingers, buddy.”

And Monkey said, “No, it’s not my fingers that got hurt, Daddy. It’s here.” And he held his wrist. His WRIST got shut in the door, and his FINGERS were purple and gray. Oh God, I whispered. Oh God, oh God, please don’t let it be broken.

I could FEEL the blood draining from my face. My hubby saw it too, and he said, “Let’s just get some ice on it, Honey.” He and the big kids stayed outside, tending to Monkey, while I fed Roo and put him to bed… and then sat crying… and crying… and crying.

My dear, wonderful hubby had apparently had the presence of mind to order a pizza at some point in all of the confusion. He came in to tell me he was going to pick it up, and of course to give me a big hug. What would I do without that man? I went out to sit with the big kids while we waited, and my sweet Monkey had his right hand sitting on the table, wrapped in ice and an Ace bandage. His tears were gone, but he was quiet. Lamb—who kept running into the RV to get stuffed animals and toys to cheer up her brother—and I entertained Monkey while we waited for our dinner. Eventually it got too dark and buggy, and we moved Roo to the back bedroom so that we could hang out inside the RV. (We later learned that Mr. Fantastic had gotten lost looking for the Pizza Hut.)

So… not quite the ending that we had planned for our trip. We had reservations to cancel, friends to call, and now would we have to start our journey home with a trip to the ER?

I feel a little guilty to leave you here on a Friday, but that's just how it all breaks down. If you don't want to wait until Monday to learn the rest, you'll just have to find me over the weekend. ;-)

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Go West, Day 10: Adventures in Colorado Springs

Correction: THIS has been my favorite day of the trip.

Remember when I said that I had wanted to move to Colorado when I was a teenager? Well, when we arrived in Denver, I appreciated its beauty… but I didn’t have that overwhelming love that I remember feeling when I had visited Colorado before. But today… oh, today. My first visit to the state had been to Colorado Springs, and this is where we spent our day… and now I remember why I wanted to leave Ohio behind.

I. LOVE. Colorado. Springs.

Our first stop was to the Focus on the Family headquarters. FOTF is a great ministry and does lots of great things, but we were there for one reason: a little town called Odyssey. “Odyssey?” you say. “I thought you were in Colorado Springs!” Oh yes, we were. But in the basement of FOTF, there’s a magical land called Odyssey. “Adventures in Odyssey” is a fantabulous radio program for kids. It started when I was a kid, but I didn’t ever really get “into” it. My kids, though, were introduced to it about four years ago, and we are AVID fans. We listen to it almost every day. If you have kids between the ages of 5 and 12 or so, PLEASE check it out. I really, really love it. I mean, my kids really love it. I mean, I don't want you to think that I would be so silly as to listen to it when my kids aren't with me... or that I have ever cried at an episode... or told my kids to "shush" so I could hear it better... that would be exactly what happened ridiculous.

 
If you’re not familiar with “Adventures in Odyssey”, some of these photos will not make sense. If you are, you’ll know just how cool some of this stuff is!!!!!!!

The Imagination Station! (aka, the elevator--so clever!)


 
Or if you take the stairs... they're all decorated too!...
 
 
Scenes from around Odyssey...



McAlister Park! 


 
Whit's Office...

 
They even had a "Little Theatre" (also from the show) with costumes, puppets, and a stage...



 
Lamb tried out being lots of different characters...
 
Monkey found Whit's vault on a scavenger hunt...
 
 The big guy himself: John Avery Whittaker (aka "Whit")
We had lunch at Whit’s End! I know, right?!?
 

And I had a “Wod Fam Choc Sod”—World Famous Chocolate Soda. It’s sort of an inside joke for AIO fans.
 
OH! And this was so exciting. Remember when I said that we started reading The Chronicles of Narnia together? Well, they had a Narnia Room! And check this out...

You walk through the wardrobe!
 
 
And yes, if you haven’t already guessed, I had as much fun in Odyssey as the kids.

Full disclosure: It wasn’t all fun and games. They had a toddler play area (called “Camp What-a-Nut”, for you fellow fans), and I took Roo for a little while.


A very little while. Apparently, Roo doesn’t play well with others. He did NOT wish to share his play area with anyone else. Also, he’s used to tackling his big brother and sister, and didn’t understand why he maybe shouldn’t do this to everyone. The other moms were understanding to a point, but it was obvious they felt it would be best if we didn’t try to grow his social skills there. I was mortified. We left.

And here was the best part of our trip to Odyssey:

We got to record our own episode of the show! WHAT?!? There are two speaking parts (requiring a 3rd grade reading level) and an additional opportunity for someone to do the special effects. You get a script, and the voices of Whit and Connie (the two main characters, for those of you not familiar with the show) are piped in as you record your parts. So Lamb and I got to be characters, and Monkey was our “Foley” (special effects).








It was SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!! And at the end, we got a CD of our episode!

When Mr. Fantastic finally dragged us all out of there, we went to another Colorado Springs gem: Garden of the Gods.


 

Is this place gorgeous or what? I came here the last time I visited Colorado Springs, too, but I appreciated it immensely more on this trip.










 
Mr. Fantastic is pointing to this...

 
...a formation called "Kissing Camels". Let me tell you how much I love my telephoto lens. That photo is completely untouched--no photoshopping or cropping or editing of any sort. Here's how far from us the formation really was...







There was a really nice couple with some cutie-pie pups who stopped to let our kids dote on their furbabies for a while.

Miss Lamb has developed a new way of being a total ham...




And my Lamb spotted the outline of an actual lamb in this formation. Can you see it?



Ummmmm... yeah, I had no idea that the sign behind me was there. I hadn't seen it at all.
Mr. Fantastic thought this was hilarious.


Balanced Rock. So cool!

I think we could have stayed there for hours, but it started to rain (Yay for the people of Colorado!), so we headed back to the truck. Within a few minutes, though, it stopped again, which led to our next adventure...

As we were driving to Colorado, we had debated whether or not to take the time to explore Pike’s Peak. Now that we were in Colorado Springs, it seemed too close to pass it up. There are two ways to get to the top, either on a cog railway or up a toll road. We decided to drive up in our truck.

At the toll station, the ranger gave us some tips for the drive, things like no A/C (too hard on the engine), stay in a low gear on the way back down, etc. We turned the air off and rolled down the windows. Although it was 87 degrees that day, the temperature at the top was just 59. Beautiful.

It was such a fantastic and beautiful trip! Now, friends, before I start posting photos of the trip up and down the mountain, there's something you need to know... I took a RIDICULOUS number of photos on this road. A HUGE amount. I have tried to go through and pick out my favorites. There are still a lot. They're all gorgeous. And none of them does justice to what it really looks like. But I'm posting them anyway. Deal with it.


 


This was a mile or so along the road (which is 19 miles long).

As soon as we saw this, Monkey started begging us to roll the windows up. Silly boy.

 



So... we stopped at a little gift shop, and Mr. Fantastic bought ice cream bars for himself and the two big kids. (I didn't want one.) Then he handed his to Roo and asked if he wanted a bite. Roo, of course, refused to return the ice cream to its original owner. Mr. Fantastic was flabbergasted and kept repeating, "He took my ice cream!" What did he expect? On what planet do you buy ice cream for two out of three kids? And do you really think you can hand ice cream to a toddler and expect him to give it BACK? Um, no. Roo quite enjoyed his borrowed ice cream bar, thankyouverymuch.


We're getting higher!


Check out those turns!


 

Snow!



We kept seeing these little creatures. I have no idea what they are, but they were pretty darn cute.

It was chilly up there!

 


The view from (or of?) Pike's Peak inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write "America the Beautiful." 

There was a rainbow up there!!!! Gorgeous.

The railway & railcar...

 
We could see The Garden of the Gods from up there! Wow!


So, we all got altitude sickness up there. For real. Well, Roo seemed to be fine, but the rest of us were definitely affected. I thought poor Monkey was going to lose his lunch--or at least his ice cream bar. It was super cool up there, but we didn't stay for long because we were all feeling pretty sick.






 





 
Does this seem like an awesome day or what?!?
 
OK, so one funny story. About 2 miles up the highway, I told Lamb and Monkey that it was their job to make sure that Roo didn't throw anything--like his shoe--out the window as we drove up. (Remember, no A/C!) Lamb immediately said, "Um, Mommy? He's only wearing one shoe right now." Are you serious? I glanced quickly in the back seat and didn't see anything, but I figured it was back there somewhere. In the meantime, I decided to take off his remaining shoe, both of his braces, and his socks, and put them up front for safe keeping. :-) Welllllllllllllll... when we got back down to mile 2, we decided to keep an eye out for a little boy's shoe just in case... and sure enough! We found it, laying on the side of the road--just around the corner from the ranger station! The minute we were on that highway, that stinker tossed his shoe right on out! I can't believe he did that--or that we found it.
 
The day may have taken a bit of a downward turn on the way back to the RV. In our excitement to go up Pike's Peak, we didn't pay much attention to the time--or think about what time it would be when we came back down. By the time we got back around civilization, it was 8 PM (which would have been 10 PM at home). The kids were starving and EXHAUSTED, and my dear hubby and I were not far behind. I had given Roo a Nutrigrain bar in his car seat, and apparently he had decided to smush it into every crevice of his seat and body rather than eat it. It was not a pretty sight. And we had an hour drive back to the campground. So we did a quick run-through at McDonald's and settled in for a tense ride "home." By the time we got back, though, our tummies were full and we had relaxed and reminisced about the day enough to be happy again.
 
Speaking of exhausted, though, I need to get to bed. Another big day planned for tomorrow!