A couple of summers ago we went up to a rented cabin with the Goodman's.
It was seriously so much fun.
Ever since, my boys have asked when we were going back to the cabin.
Talking as if we owned the place and go everything other weekend, lol!
One day I was chatting with my sister in law about how much we enjoyed that trip.
The next day she sent out a group text saying she had booked the cabin and whoever would
like to come was welcome to join her.
Um, no thinking there.
Yes, please!!
A couple of weeks later we were headed to Showlow!
I was by myself with the kids.
Work was busy for Casey and he was going to head up later that afternoon when
his job finished.
We were going to stay Monday-Thursday.
I was bummed Casey would have to drive home Wednesday night to get back
to making a living for us.
However, we would take him those 2 days he could sneak away!
This cabin is ridonkulous.
4,500 square feet.
7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms.
3 which are huge masters with ginormous bathrooms.
A basement with a theater room.
Big playroom.
Its serious business, and a perfect place for a large family to vacation together!
Not everybody could come due to other circumstances.
The families that came were:
Stephanie and her kids.
Travis, Sunni and kids.
Breanna, Valerie, and kids.
And us!
We arrived around 4pm.
We figured out rooms.
I got a master.
Lindi got her own room in the huge closet:)
All of the boys shared a room that had a bunk bed plus a queen.
I'm telling ya, this cabin is spacious!
I was in charge of dinner that night.
Before I left town I picked up some sweet pork from
Costa Vida. Salads, burritos, and nachos were on the menu!
It was the kick off for lots and lots of good eating that week!
Casey also arrived around 9 o'clock.
We got the kiddos ready for bed
and let them have a dance party.
These munchkins are a hoot.
They all get along and love each other so much!
Pretty sure the adults got less sleep each night than we do at home.
It's too hard to go to bed when you get deep into conversations.
1am seemed to be the standard bedtime!
The next day was my BIRTHDAY!!
I didn't want or expect much.
Being on vacation was a gift in itself.
I walked into the kitchen with this cute banner and balloons hanging up.
I was feeling special already!
Breanna and Valerie made a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, fruit and muffins.
After breakfast a box of a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes appeared and I got sung happy birthday to!
Casey gave me a gift.
Which he wasn't supposed to.
I already got my birthday present which was a new kitchen table!!!
And oh how I love it:)
I'll have to post a picture of it when I show more of the after pictures of our new house.
Inside the bag were 2 new bizzy skirts, my favorite!!
I loved knowing he took the time to call my friend to order them and figure out which ones
I would like best.
Sunni gave me some nail polish and headbands... which I both needed desperately.
After breakfast the kids had been begging to go on a bear hunt.
Papa took them on a bear hunt the last time we were at the cabin
and it was all they could talk about.
I don't know where the confusion started but I guess
Peyton, Randon, Lane, Dallin, and Rusty left on the bear hunt with the
adults assuming another adult was with them.
It had been around 2 hours since they had left when Valerie brought to our attention that
the kids had been gone awhile and she didn't see or hear them while she was
outside playing with Charlotte.
We kind of looked around and realized she was right!
The cabin is huge and we figured they had come back and were playing so nicely downstairs or something, ha!
Casey left and started looking for them on foot.
He called saying that the forest behind the cabin was large and that they could be
easily lost and needed backup looking.
I started to get a little panicked.
It was kind of warm and they did not have any water with them.
Travis and Stephanie started looking in the other direction
and I hopped in the truck and started driving around wondering if
I could spot them walking on one of the roads.
The cabin is in Torreon which a HUGE community with lots of tiny, twisty roads
that is confusing to navigate through if you do not know the area.
I called the communities security office to see if they had any reports of missing children wondering around or to see if the could come help us search.
The lady on the phone asked for the address of the cabin we were staying at.
In a bad sounding moan she then
notified me that where we were located was backed with national forest.
She then asked how long they were missing and I said 2 hours, if not longer now.
She said ya, better call the sheriffs office.
CRAPPPPP. Now I was really panicked.
Not so much that we wouldn't find them, more of them coming across a bear
or an animal that they could get injured by.
When I called Casey to them we needed to call 911 he said they already had
and that help was on the way.
Right as I pulled back up to the cabin a police officer had just pulled up as well.
He said they had a fire crew searching the highway behind the forest because it was possible
they could have made it out in that direction.
We were out back with hearts pounding waiting for about 15 minutes when we got a text
from Travis saying they could hear crying!!
It took another 5-10 minutes for them to text that they had found them!!!
They were ok but all of them were sobbing and scared to death.
I was beyond relieved and had to fight back tears that they were ok.
The police officer called off the search but he stayed so he
could talk to them about safety and how it is so important
to never go into the forest alone.
By the looks on their faces they had definitely learned their lesson!
It was a long, scary 45 minutes for us.
I can't imagine how they must have felt being lost for over 2 hours in the woods!
I remember getting lost from my mom at Mervyn's when I was little, but for only 10 minutes!
I haven't forgotten it to this day!
Luckily they stayed together.
They said a prayer and I have no doubt Heavenly Father was protecting them.
I guess they ran across a baby deer and a RATTLE SNAKE!!
What an adventure!
We had them recap their story on video.
You can see on their faces they were still traumatized.
Poor things.
The rest of the day they stayed inside!!
The older girls made buy one get one free coupons for a manicure.
Mine was on the house because it was my birthday:)
They liked to throw things off of the balcony.
A ball got stuck up on that ledge with the plant.
They were trying to get it down.
Sunni and Travis made a delicious dinner of baked ziti, salad and garlic bread!
For dessert they surprised me AGAIN with a blizzard birthday cake!
My favorite flavor even, French silk pie with peanuts.
Oh and wait.
Travis unveiled another box full of Sprinkles sugar cookies!!!
They sure know my weak spots:)
This was too cute of the girls licking their plates clean of
cake and cookies!
The kiddos were tucked in their beds when we pulled out a new super fun game,
Wits and Wagers!
It's like a betting game mixed with trivial pursuit.
The question is read and based on your knowledge of the answer
you put your chips on the wager board.
Depending on how close your answer is to being correct, you receive bonus
chips with different point values.
It was really fun!
We played that for a while then decided to play Guesstures.
Tie that in to it being 1 in the morning and what you get is a bunch of grown people rolling on the floor laughing hysterically!
The next morning we had yummy breakfast sandwiches then headed to the park!
We loaded in the back of the truck, because its just fun and part of "camping".
Rusty wanted to take a selfie, lol!
He did pretty good!
This was funny.
Lindi had already eaten every snack I brought.
I told her no more treats!
A minute later she came walking up really slowly and suspiciously to where we were sitting.
We noticed she was trying to hide a bag chips behind her back!
Little sneak!
We called her name but she pretended not to hear us.
Travis yelled look over there, its a squirrel!
She turned her back to look and bang, BUSTED!!
Casey had to head back home so around 8 o'clock we said our goodbyes to him.
Sniff, sniff.
Us girls stayed up and chatted till 2:30 in the morning!!
We had to be checked out by 10am.
We didn't even get out of our rooms until 9:30:/
We loaded the cars and said our goodbyes.
Stephanie, Sunni, and their families we going straight from the cabin to Oceanside, lucky's!
The plan was for me to spend the day in Showlow, find a random hotel to spend the night in,
then meet up with my family for our annual family camping trip.
We took a quick picture, gave hugs then left our separate ways.
Such a blast that impromptu trip was!!
It was much needed for all of us.
Love that family of mine!
It was such a weird feeling being on my own.
It was a colder day and was heavily sprinkling off and on.
I was wondering what the heck I was going to do in this small town with my
kids all day!
I couldn't go to a park like I thought we could do to kill time or else we
would get wet.
My parents were driving up that day to camp Thursday-Saturday.
I originally planned on just going to their camping site and hanging out for all of Friday and
driving home so I wouldn't have to pack camping gear on top of cabin stuff.
I ended up over packing on clothes.
I had a sleeping bag incase one of the boys needed to use it at the cabin.
I had the pack n play.
Hmmm, I was thinking maybe we could squish into my parents tent for one night
then go home Friday so I wouldn't have to go to a hotel.
I called my mom and told her my thoughts while we ate at Sonic.
I could hear her talking with my dad in the background and he said of course!
So, the plan switched!!
I headed to Walmart to get a few things.
I went to the camping section and found these 2 sleeping bags for the boys to use.
I was going to make them rough it but these pads were only $8 each so I decided to be nice and give them some padding:)
Tossed some pillows and pillow cases in the cart.
We were set and could survive a night of thrown together camping!
When we arrived everybody was happy and surprised to see us
because they thought we were only coming for Friday.
I drove back to where my parents were setting up.
I spied 2 tents.
In Payson my dad bought us a tent, how nice!!
It was perfect and fit us to a T!
We each had a pad and sleeping bag....the boys were already off playing.
I had one clean jacket and enough underwear for 2 days per person.
Next thing I know I am calling Casey saying our one day camping trip is
turning into a 3 day trip!
Why not.
YOLO!
Plus if I went home they would be sitting in front of the tv or fighting with each other.
He said to have fun, and fun we did have!
When you camp with my family its a different experience than normal camping.
My uncle has this huge cook trailer equipped with everything you would find in a
restaurant kitchen. Including a fryer.
For dinner the first night we had hamburgers, and grilled chicken.
A deluxe salad with all of the toppings.
Chicken tenders out of the fryer, onion rings and french fries
with churros for dessert.
Holy moly, it was gooooood!
The next few days I only saw my boys when they
needed a piece of candy opened, or if they were flying by me on a quad!
It was HEAVENLY!
Only Lindi was pretty clingy, but what's new.
Corn hole seemed to take over horse shoes and bowling bowl croquet this year.
Always an intense game going on.
I wouldn't give her her hundredth piece of licorice or something.
That dirty face....
David and Jefferson joined us half way through.
We were the only Lindbloms this year, the rest were pretty much Montagues.
On the drive home Lane (my car sick kid), was feeling it come on.
I didn't have a bag so quickly I scanned the car for what he could use.
Have no fear, crock pot to the rescue!!
We made it home late Saturday night.
To be honest, I was pretty darn proud of myself that I did 2 trips all by myself.
And that we had a really good time.
It was a week we will never forget!
