Should you BOOK a Getaway with your kids?
(Not sponsored.) Do you like to go camping but don’t want to have to remember all the little things—cookware, silverware, bedding, towels, soap, cleaning supplies, even s’mores and firewood? Do you like to go camping, but enjoy a really good night’s sleep in temperature controlled room? Apparently, Instagram knew me and I had kept seeing ads for Getaway and I thought I would give them a try. It was a four-person limit for this cabin, so I took our three older boys, leaving Almanzo home with mama for some special Mommy-Manzo time.
The first thing we all love to do when arriving to our vacation spot is tour the whole place. Samson has gotten in a habit of using my phone for a legit video tour of our vacation spot. Complete with our cozy nighttime games and early morning lego playing. Susannah bought me a big Star Wars Lego set for Christmas and I just brought that and a few extra ziplock bags—we tore it up and made tons of completely new spaceships just from that one set.
Below: Luther after his nap.
He was able to sleep on the upper bed and we could draw the blinds just enough to make it dark for him and keep it nice and lit for us. We just played more Legos, drew, went out for a few minutes, and came back all while Luther slept.
We had lots of fun drawing pictures on the big bed with tons of natural light flowing in. Even though the space was small, it felt big and well spaced-out. The kitchen was the perfect size for my sons to help wash dishes & put away after every meal. The whole place had the best kind of end-of-the-world vibes. There was zero reception, only a small radio with bluetooth. The boys had a lot of fun trying to find different radio stations and learning that their bodies can be used as an antenna. Obie in great excitement: “Dad, look!” as he force-pushes towards the radio causing the static to stop, “It’s the FORCE!”.
We had popcorn in the afternoon for tea time before dinner. I didn’t think it would be so much fun, but the kids kept pretending they were chipmunks and perching themselves on “trees”. Late night cards with my boys—can’t believe I get to have this life with them. Such an opportunity to unplug and connect with each of them. I don’t think I have seen Samson either laugh as hard or looked as serious as he did on this trip.
Obie taught Luther how to play chess while I taught Samson a new card game. They kept at it for a long time until we all started to get little restless and wanted to go outside. We bundled up and had a quick snow ball fight only for Luther (4) to get snow in his pocket. This was a devastating turn of events for us. It downright almost ruined the entire trip. Luckily for us, we were so close to our cabin that Luther could just go inside and read some books, which he happily did.
Then we got out the BB gun for some shooting, aka modeling.
I then proceeded to do the unthinkable—I made us all s’more bowls for DINNER. Yes, not as a dessert but for dinner. We made a fire outside, roasted about 12 marshmallows, threw a whole bag of graham crackers into a bowl, added chocolate, and the finely-roasted marshmallows and mixed. BAM! S’more bowls for dinner. It jacked us up real good and gave us the energy we needed to play more Legos, clean the kitchen, and play more games. Since it was the last night we wanted to go out with a bang.
Okay guys, this is where the true magic started to happen. Right when we were getting all cooped up, we called Susannah, and got to chat about all the things. Complete with the kids toying with the phone cord and telling mom all about the day’s adventures. Not to mention nothing sweeter than playing chess with Luther. Obie did not in fact teach him the right way I quickly found out, but I caught up quick and we had a blast “killing all the bad guys”. We also all watched The Phantom Menace (Star Wars) on New Years Eve, and I had this old deck of playing cards with all the characters from the movie on it. I brought those and we were able to make up our own “matching game” which quickly has become Luther’s favorite.
We woke to a whole foot of fresh snow. They all played legos while I made us up some sausage, hash browns, and fried eggs. Complete with morning coco. It was finally a proper snow in. Samson said “this is the most snow I have ever seen!” We had a real blast playing in the snow this time.
One of the first big fights we ever had in our marriage was about 4 months in during our first snow together. Susannah went out and made up bowls of snow and poured milk and cocoa powder on top. At the time I thought it was silly, and boy, word of advice. If your wife shows you something that has been a childhood tradition and treasure, and your response to this very precious idea is “that’s silly”, well, needless to say, we spent the next three hours discussing why I was very wrong. This was an ironic moment because here we are 10 years later, and I am making this very same special treat for my boys, and their response is the absolute correct response.
Check out was at 11am and with fresh snow on the ground I was getting little worried about the road conditions. Right about 10:40 a big snowplow came and plowed out our drive way as well as the roads to get out of camp. With my Ford F-150 we had no troubles getting out.
We got to see lots of elk on our way out, and it ended up snowing even more on us.vThe truck did great, it just took us longer to get home.
Overall, it was an amazing vacation and I would 10/10 do it again. There was something about it being so small, in nature, feeling like it was cut off from civilization, just made it such a perfect way to slow down and breathe in all the many blessings we have. Stop, be still, and breathe.
Getaway did not pay us or contact us to make up a post. However, should someone on the Getaway team read this, I would not turn down a few free nights stay. :) Susannah and I hope to go together sometime soon!
All these photos were taken with the new Nikon Zf camera and I am loving it! I am only using the FTZ adapter and the old Sigma art 35mm f/1.4. It focuses faster than any of my other cameras, and is quickly becoming a new favorite.
Peter
