It's Jan 2nd - time to head to Estes Park for our annual Christmas get-together!! HOORAY! We've all been anxiously awaiting this special time! This year there will be 19 of us which includes Rayna's boyfriend, Hezekiah and Evan's girlfriend, Reese! And we're also excited because this year we booked 2, 4 bedroom VACATION cabins which are a step up from our cabins we usually get - which means they do have a LOT more room and includes nice leather furniture, tv's on both floors and a family room downstairs! The best part of renting these is that Jill did the booking this year and she got a 50% discount since she works in the school system! WOW! That sure made a difference on the price!
Glenn and I took the Boulder route this year - we had all decided to arrive there around 2:30 - actually check-in time is 6:00 pm ( I know - hard to believe - but we have ALWAYS gotten in at 2:00!) Unfortunately, not this year! The cabins were not ready so we all headed down to the game room! Oh and I forgot to mention the wind - oh my gosh - it was horrible!! The kind where you didn't dare open up opposite side doors of your car at the same time or the wind would have taken everything out!! It was extreme to say the least!
The kids had a great time in the game room!
And then a few of them went upstairs to the main level as they were offering a craft - making Oobleck - which is made from water and corn starch and coloring! (HMMMM - I kind of think that's what I make for a thickening when I make gravy!! Although I don't color it - HA!!
Then a bunch of us trudged back over to the lodge where registration is to see if the cabins were ready - NOPE!! Oh my - we were not happy!! Jill did get checked in but they won't give you the cabin names or the key cards till housekeeping says it's ready! We hung out and talked and talked and waited and waited!! And then the electricity goes out..........
They had a backup generator in the lodge so there was a little bit of light but it was darn dark outside!
It's getting later and the kids are all starving - finally we made the decision that Jaime would go downtown and get pizzas for us (assuming the pizza place had electricity??? We had no idea and of course none of our phones would work because the wifi was down and there was no service!)
She was just ready to walk out the door when an employee made the announcement that since we could not get into our cabins, the dining hall was open and we were welcome to go over and eat, free of charge!! HOORAY!!! It was cold and windy but we all trudged through the snow using our flashlights on our phone! The buffet line had enough lights so you could at least see what you were dishing up but the tables only had a tiny light in a lantern and you couldn't even see to eat!! OH MY - what an expereince!!
There was a LOT of people eating there that couldn't get into their cabins yet!
After we ate, we moved to another room that had tables and booths to hang out - the electricity slowly started coming back on in some of the buildings! A couple of us walked over to check on our cabins but still not available (apparently housekeeping wasn't able to connect with the main lodge for a long time due to the outage )
They had ice cream available so we ate that - but all we wanted was to get in our cabins and unload our cars!!
Kenzie and Aleah were exhausted and fell asleep - the waiting was hard!
Finally we got the OK to get our key cards for our cabins!!! HOORAY!!! The roads were a sheet of ice from all that wind blowing across the roads but our cabins were gorgeous!!!! Really nice big living rooms with a dining room table in each that seated 12 - nice big kitchen - family room downstairs with another tv - we couldn't have asked for anything better!!!
Jill and Robby and Glenn and I were in one cabin along with Kylan and Irene, Evan, Parker and Matias. The rest were in the cabin next door - we were the only 2 cabins on the little road so that made it nice!!
We all helped each other unload and unpack and FINALLY we were ready for our time to start!
The first night is usually the night the guys and the grandboys play poker - this year was no exception - they started out in the other cabin but then moved to our cabin - and yes, they are SO LOUD when they all are together!!! Luckily I had my sound machine going loud and I took a pill to sleep but I could still here the doors slam, etc. etc.
Here's a few of them at the other cabin - and NO, I didn't get out of bed to take a picture at our cabin!
They played poker WAY TOO LATE - but they all knew we were meeting at 9:00am the next morning to celebrate Christmas!
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