Do you really want to yurt me

We went on a yurt adventure last week. It was awesome. You know, mostly awesome. The crying parts were not awesome but everything before, after, and in between the crying parts, those were the awesome parts.

We were all so excited. Seriously. HUGE anticipation and excitement. We actually scheduled a date in February and decided it was too long to wait so we pulled Lainey out of school for a day so we could go earlier and not have to wait so long.

As mentioned in the previous post I spent too much time and effort building sleds. The kids gathered their things several days before we left (though after several days those things had spread themselves magically through the whole house so I have no direct evidence that they were originally gathered in one place.) Usually there is nothing worse then PREPARING to go on the trip. I don't know what it is but usually the last hour or two before departure are pure torture while last minute things are gathered, new snack ideas are developed, and I don't know what the heck else - I just know it always takes too long to leave.

We have NEVER been more prepared for a trip. Everything was packed. Everything was streamlined. Food was ready, bags were perfectly prepared for every needful thing. Here was the plan: Leave at 12:15. Marie had to work until 12 so we knew we couldn't leave before that but for ONCE it FINALLY seemed like we were going to leave on time. I was just as anxious as anyone and I actually ended up checking Lainey out of school a little earlier than planned and picked Rom up before his preschool was done even though he could have finished out the morning...but I was excited....and I wanted to be ready. So at 11:45 the kids and I were actually IN the car waiting for Marie. Knowing this was too early to be in the car we hit the redbox and the del taco in hopes of killing some time and at 12:15 we were back at the house and waiting. Finally the phone rang and we knew it was Marie telling us she was on her way home. But it wasn't. It was Marie saying she needed 15 more minutes. I suggested we go back in house but the kids refused. Thank heavens for uno cards. We played a lot of uno in the car because an hour later Marie called again to say she was on her way home. Luckily the kids were still happy and she finally got home and we left in a hurry. We were racing daylight.

We had one of the easiest drives with the kids ever. I'm not kidding, I think they were whistling zip-a-dee-doo-da the whole way there. As we approached the trail head we could tell this was going to be the greatest family trip ever! And then we pulled into the trail head, turned off the car, and opened the door.

The kids sprang from the toasty car and into the 20 degree air and extremely high winds. Romney ran straight to the nearest snow bank and stuck his hands in the snow and left them there until he started to cry. Since Romney was crying and getting attention now, Lainey couldn't stand for that so she started screaming. Seriously? Come on! They were so happy just seconds ago. I fired up some hand warmers and begged Lainey to get back in the car under the guise of helping me with something. Bad move. She was like a drunk Mick Jagger in a hotel room he didn't like. In the meantime Romney had realized that everyone else's ski poles were sharp on the bottom and his were not so he immediately began to go ballistic on his poles. I have never seen him so angry. He was throwing his poles and then running over to them and stomping on them and kicking them. It was brutal.

Finally, after just a few minutes of serious meltdowns and tears being dried by winds so cold it left salt stains on everyone's faces, we finally were on the trail. We had to backtrack about 20 feet around a fence to hit the trail so 3 minutes later we were actually directly in front of our car and Romney had just fallen down on his skis for the 6th time and he refused to get up. Grrr. We knew he wouldn't make it all the way to the yurt but I had thought that we wouldn't be able to see the car when he gave up. We strapped him in on his prepared seat in the sled and finally we were off. Magically, as soon as we could no longer see the trailhead the wind died down and the sun came out and everyone was happy again. For a while anyway. We had a few near breakdowns on the trail. My most favorite was when Lainey was so frustrated about something silly (I honestly don't remember but I think she was frustrated with our stance on health care or something like that) and she walked off the trail, bent down and stuck her head directly into the snow. Oh, one other horrible part of the trip in was that it seemed like Romney constantly had to go to the bathroom and his snow suit does not provide really great accessibility. On the second rotation of potty stops it was my turn and his normal scatterbrain way he was not paying attention at all to what he was doing (which is a subject for a possible future post. How can a boy be SO distracted all the time while peeing?) Anyway, the results of his lack of attention was that he peed on me. I swear I could have killed him. I wanted so badly to push him into a snow drift or something but I didn't. Really though. PEED on me!

The yurt itself was awesome. If you are not familiar with a yurt it is a large round structure. This one had a built in wood burning stove, propane stoves, and three lanterns. It is outfitted with bunks and a little table and it is awesome. (editors note: Marie made super yummy calzones for dinner.) The yurt gets nice and toasty warm and by bedtime it was over 80 degrees on the upper bunks where the kids wanted to sleep. Did we care? No. Shut up and go to sleep already. I think they did. Marie and I on the other hand could not fall asleep in the heat and laid there for a long time trying to get comfortable. Just as we were possibly drifting off to sleep there was a large THUMP, THUD, and then quiet. Well, quiet except for Marie who jumped up trying to figure out which of our children had fallen to their deaths but I check the floor and there was no one there. Upon further inspection we did find Romney wedged between the bunk and the wall of the yurt sort of dangling in his sleeping back and resting on a diagonal support beam. He was limp and not moving and Marie started freaking out a little, but it turns out he was still completely asleep. The fall didn't even phase him. He didn't even blink! So we turned him around and put him on a lower bunk and tried to go back to sleep.

The problem with going back to sleep was that the fall, or rather Marie yelling after Rom's fall, had woken Lainey and if you know Lainey then you know that if she is not asleep ain't nobody else going to sleep either. "Mom, I can't sleep." "That is because you are talking. Be quiet and you will fall back asleep." "But it isn't working." "Well you haven't tried yet, please be quiet." "But it isn't working." "You haven't actually been quiet for 5 seconds so that is why it isn't working." "But I can't sleep, Mom." "Laine, there are 6 other people in here for the love of all that is beautiful in the world please be quiet." "I'm still awake though, Mom." "Laine, stop talking." "But I can't sleep." "You can Laine. Please be quiet for a few minutes and you will go back to sleep." "But I heard something and I think someone is standing on the porch of the yurt." "That is just the wind." "No, I think there is someone out there and I can't go to sleep."
At this point I decided that it was pretty hot up there and if I had to listen to the conversation any longer I was going to start using words that are not allowed in our house so I went up and got Laine and moved her to the floor where it was not so hot. This seemed to work and everyone finally quieted down. About three minutes later, however, there was another thud up high and I went up to find Lainey's little friend that was at the yurt with us. She had taken all her clothes off in the heat and lost her sleeping bag and was now just sleeping in only her underwear on a plywood slat. Well, she wasn't sleeping anymore. Now she was cold, uncomfortable and crying so we found her clothes, got her sleeping bag, and moved her to the floor also. FINALLY it was actually quiet and about two hours later Marie and I were able to fall asleep.

Just after we fell asleep there was another THUD. At this point there was no one on the bunks so we were a little confused. Again, we heard a small whimpering cry. Confused I finally found the source of the crying UNDER our bed. Lainey's friend had rolled under our bed and sat up confused in the dark and hit her head. At this point I am grateful that rather than being frustrated with the complete lack of sleep Marie and I both started laughing. (not at the nice girl under our bed of course, just at the situation.) We got her back into her bed and she went off to sleep. (Her parents BTW repaid the efforts by getting up in the night and relighting the fire to keep us all warm.)

That was the last event of the night luckily so we got a solid 3 or 4 hours sleep after that. My favorite moment of the morning was when Romney woke up with his head near ours. He rolled over and with his elbows on the bed and his head in his hands he said, "Dad, how did I get down here?" "You fell, Rom." "Oh, that's funny!"

The morning was full of oatmeal, making snow forts, snowball fights and the coldest toilet seat I have ever sat on ever. It really is a great place. Everyone was happy as we packed and cleaned and finally it was time to go. As we got outside and put on the skis however, something snapped. I don't get it. Those first moments must create something crazy in our children because both started to cry and wouldn't smile for our family picture. Romney didn't even make it past the porch this time before we just strapped him to the sled. Why did we even bring skis for him?

The ski home was uneventful after the departure and we were super proud of Lainey for skiing the whole way by herself. So, the verdict? Super great and can't wait to go again in another two weeks.