After sabbatical last summer, we decided that we wanted to be a lot more proactive about vacations to prevent us from getting burned out. We pretty much promised to make sure we got them in despite all our excuses about youth trips making our summers crazy. So we went ahead and scheduled another Red Lodge, Montana cabin trip for the end of May over the Memorial Day weekend. We went to church like normal on Sunday May 27, but left for the cabin directly from the church and ate lunch in the van. About half way we let the kids watch a movie in the new van. That DVD player is awesome.
In Laurel, Montana, only about 45 minutes from Red Lodge, we stopped at Walmart for the last minute refrigerated items we needed, and then the skies opened and it poured on us. I wish we had known that was exactly how the entire week was going to be. It practically never stopped raining. Anyway, we ran into the local Taco Johns for dinner.
The kids had never ever been there but per Terry and I's memory, it wasn't that good.
We got back on the road and drove to Red Lodge. I started getting excited when I saw the snow clad mountains.
We went through Red Lodge itself, up the highway, past this familiar rock outcropping...
...just past this Bear Tooth Highway sign...
...and turned on East Side Road!
We saw a moose in the woods right next to where our Corral Creek hiking trail was at from last year!
We finally made it! Terry parked the van, ran to retrieve the keys, and let us in.
We ended up having to "open the cabin for the season," meaning we had to get the water going. This is an old school cabin, so the water comes from the mountain Sheridan Creek coming down right next to the cabin. See that black pipe? Terry had to wind it up the creek, push it down into the water, and let it fill the cistern that red-coated Ezra is standing next to. So once the cistern was full Terry had to get the pump under the house going. But that's where the problems began.
He had already turned on the electricity so at least we had that going for us. The kids helped bring in all the stuff and I went to work putting everything away while Terry worked on the water. I got all the beds made, all the food stowed, and the kids ready for bed.
Ezra going nuts with his animals. Samuel is reading the Where's Waldo book we forgot there last year.
We brought a bunch of Duplo Legos for Ezra to play with but they were pretty much only played with this night. 😩
Also, as soon as we arrived, it started raining. It was pouring pretty good. So Terry was in and out of the cabin, in and out of the crawlspace under the cabin, and therefore in and out of the rain. The poor guy got absolutely soaked and muddy.
He called his uncle Chuck who is one of the guys who usually opens the cabin. He would've had it opened in early May except the creek and cistern were still iced over! Anyway, Terry was having trouble getting the water running. He finally got it to work, however, there was no hot water, and absolutely zero water coming out of the kitchen sink at the far end of the house. So Chuck was helping Terry to get it all sorted out. He's looking at the water heater now.
However, a little later Terry discovered the real reason there was no hot water - the pipe that runs to the kitchen sink was broken under the cabin!
So the water had been pumping but just dumping onto the ground!
Terry turned the water off for the night and planned to fix it the following day. What a nightmare.
I believe we had cold water the following day to get ready, but then turned it back off again and drove into Red Lodge. Oh yeah, it was raining yet again!
Thank the Lord that even though it was Memorial Day, the local hardware store was open for business! Yay! Some very helpful salesmen got us sorted out...sort of.
We drove back up to the cabin with the shark bike pipe fitting Terry had bought instead of welding the pipe back together.
There he goes!
He spent a lot of time under there in the dark the night before. Those are the pumps he's pointing at.
Going behind the blue tank and headed to the crawlspace beyond that goes beyond to the main portion of the cabin.
I crawled to that space and took this picture. The red arrow pointing to darkness is where he had to crawl to in order to fix the pipe!
Chilling with the spiders and mice. Terry actually saw a mouse crawling around with him the night before.
Meanwhile the boys played by the creek.
Noah was reading in the bed that above the crawlspace. Not long after it started to rain again.
Terry came out not long afterward frustrated that he had bought the wrong size. The shark bite was too small!
So Terry went back to town, back to the hardware store, and then back to the cabin and into the crawlspace. Meanwhile we were getting toastier inside because we started a fire and roasted our lunch over it.
I like fire roasted hot dogs.
Also, I was taking pictures. I remember mentioning this picture frame that hangs by the cabin door last year but hadn't actually taken a picture of it.
The cabin construction began in 1939!!
That's either Terry's great grandmother or his regular grandma Dorothy. I think it looks like Dorothy.
Meanwhile Terry was right under my feet where he cleaned the pipes of the old welding mess...
...and the new shark bite pipe fitting fit perfectly! Problem solved! My husband is so smart and capable.
Now our vacation could start properly...
So once Terry was done, he took a nice hot shower and then we sat around and watched a movie. We had earned it.
After that we decided to give the kids Terry had planned beforehand but first they had to clean up. Notice the difference? 😂
Lasertag!
The little boys were very excited because their friend Henry had got laser tag for a gift recently.
Off they went!
They played super hard for like an hour.
The house is laid out in a circle. The living room circles around to a hallway where the bathroom connects to the white bedroom. Noah is hiding in that hallway.
Evie is trying to shoot him from around the corner.
"Shhh, don't tell Noah I'm here." Too late!
Evie, Ezra, and Samuel hid behind green curtains at the far end of the cabin...
...and Noah tried to get the three of them.
This video is from early in the battle.
The kids were so sweaty and now that it had stopped raining and the sun had actually crept out, we gave them their next surprise...
Bubbles!
I warmed up chicken pot pie for dinner. It was amazing. The sun was shining, the cabin was finally warm, and our bellies were full. Things were looking up.
After clean up we went for a little walk down the road to the creek.
There's the gate down to the bridge.
Pretty blue bells on the side of the path.
We brought four fishing poles because the kids so badly wanted to actually fish after pretending last year.
However, the river was raging even worse than last year!
Scary Rock Creek.
Ezra got pretty good at throwing out his line.
Again at the riverside.
Evie girl.
Samuel boy.
Da boys.
Terry did nothing for like an hour but run around and fix fishing lines. The whole experience was an exercise in futility since there was not a chance we were going to catch a fish in that crazy water. But he's such a good daddy, he did it anyway.
He's so cute.
So is this boy!
Evie walked across the bridge to the smaller bridge that links to another cabin neighborhood. She thought she'd have more luck there, but no.
So pretty!
I thought the new growth on these trees was pretty - purple!
Yeah, purple cones!
A panorama from mid-bridge.
I crossed to the other side and took a few more.
Time to go.
Since it was cold and wet but we really, really wanted to remake our nightly s'more tradition, we roasted marshmallows inside over the stove. This might have been the one time we actually did it. 😕
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