colorado or bust

We've been on vacation. Well, I'm not really sure if I would call it a vacation...but that was the plan. We left for Colorado last Sunday and were so excited to get away for a week and escape the Kansas heat. But this year our vacation was definitely a bust. Total bummer. This is how it went down.

After five hours of driving and one hour of little brother screaming the car was finally peaceful. We were beginning to wonder if the long drive was worth it. Maybe we should have just stayed home. But eight hours later we were hanging out with our dear friends and we decided it was totally worth it...screaming and all.

I didn't take any pictures except on my phone but Laura sent me this sweet picture of our boys. They played hard. The weather was so beautiful in Colorado...trampoline jumping, swinging, running, swimming, talking on the porch, snacking, and s'mores making...all day long. Levi had so much fun. And I think Griffin was really wishing he knew how to walk so he could chase after these boys. I was trying to talk Joel into moving the farm to Colorado. He said it wasn't possible. Bummer.

(Laura just sent me a few more...proof that I was actually on this trip too!)

We left Colorado Springs on Tuesday afternoon to head up to my grandparents cabin in the mountains.

It was just as I remembered. Beautiful and peaceful. I love going to the cabin with my family and I was so looking forward to spending time there. We spent the evening laying in the hammock and playing tractors in the wood chips. No internet and no phone service. Perfect.

Shortly after we put Levi to bed that night he threw up. Ugh. The rest of the trip pretty much went down hill from there. Just think...lying on the bed watching movies (I have way to many Boz and Veggie Tales songs running through my head right now), high fever, not eating, waking up all night...everything that shouldn't happen on vacation. My sweet grandma took Griffin on lots of walks to keep him happy. He started running a fever the next day.

There were times when we thought they were getting better and squeezed in a few fun moments. We really needed to get out of the house.

We even decided to go into the national park one day and give it a try. Everyone was feeling a little better. This was the part of the trip I was really looking forward to. Hiking on the trails and picnicking in the mountains. I have such good memories of doing both of those things with Cora and Levi. We drove just a little way into the national park for our picnic and by the time we got there Levi was asleep.

 Griffin wasn't too thrilled with the whole picnic idea either.

Levi slept through our picnic and when he woke up this is what we were dealing with. Definitely not a good day to try hiking. Back to the cabin to watch more movies.

The most adventurous we got was hauling pine cones on the deck. We kept thinking maybe Levi was getting better but on Thursday night he was running a really high fever again. He was miserable. We decided it was time to go home. Goodbye hiking. Goodbye cute family picture in the mountains. Goodbye trip to IKEA. Goodbye going back to Colorado Springs to hang out with friends some more. Hello twelve hour car ride with sick kids. And to make things worse, Joel threw up as we were getting ready to leave Friday morning. I was the last one standing.

I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say that the trip home was one of the longest days ever. I was feeling sorry for myself. We really needed a break from our everyday and this sickness stuff was really messing up my plans. But as we were leaving Friday morning the news of the Aurora movie theatre shooting was all over the TV and radio. Such heartache. I can't imagine what so many families and friends were dealing with that morning and for many more days and months to come. And then I remembered a time when Joel and I were driving back from the cabin all alone, in a quiet car right after Cora died. I would have done anything to have a crying little girl in the back seat. It gave me some much needed perspective. I was thankful that I was going home with my family...we were a little sick but we were together. I needed that reminder.

Saturday morning we took Levi into immediate care. It was a little traumatizing but after being checked by the doctor, blood work, and a chest xray they figured out he had pneumonia. What?! How in the world do you get pneumonia in the summer? Crazy.

The rest of our "vacation" looked a lot like this. We realized this weekend that this was the first time since we moved here eight years ago that we were all home all weekend without anything to do (except a trip to the doctor). We don't have true "weekends" here on the farm. For some reason the cattle think they need to eat two times a day. Sheesh. That really breaks into a girl's weekend (actually it really breaks into my hubby's weekend...but I really like to have him around!). I've tried to argue with Joel that they could probably miss just one meal, but apparently that's not the case. So spending the weekend together at home just hanging out was a really nice change...and a good end to our vacation even if it really was a bust this year.