Our Vacation Adventure

So as some of you remember (since I know I don't blog too often or keep up with what I SAY I'm going to do), we left on a little vacation the other day to spend an entire WEEK up at the cabin in the St Cloud area. I'll try to keep this short but I highly doubt it's going to work. Lets start with Friday. The day we were heading up, was also the same day that all the terrible severe weather was moving across the Twin Cities. We packed up the car and really, the only things you could see were our faces. LT barely had room for himself, BUT...we managed to squeeze the entire house into the car nonetheless. We headed out by about 6:30/7. We needed to first stop by our friend's place to pick up beanbags for our beanbag game. So we cut over to the west just north of Stacy. However, we didn't get too far. The sky was black. And I mean BLACK! I've never seen anything like this before. I could tell the wind was picking up and we were about to drive further away from safety since this road we took is pretty much farm land and I wasn't about to run up to a farmers house begging to come in. So I told Jeff to turn around because I didn't want to go any further. We were on the edge of the storm and it was UGLY. Just when Jeff turned the car around, the wind picked up and things started to blow! A trash can was nearly swept into the back of our vehicle (we had turned around in someone's driveway). We decided to head back towards our place since we knew there were at least homes! Just then, my father in law called and told us to go south and east. DO NOT GO NORTH. So we were headed in the right direction. Or so we thought. So as I'm shouting at Jeff to go faster (he was already going 75), I kept an eye on the clouds. I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life. The car was blowing all over the road (we have a Pathfinder) so it's not like it's a little thing that's easily jostled around. We decided to get back on the freeway and head to Wyoming where my 2 stepbrothers live - and they have basements. As we were going down the freeway, people were pulling over as debris was blowing across the road, sand tornadoes were happening, the hood of car was about to flip up. I just sat and watched it bounce up and down just WAITING for that right gust of wind. I kept telling Jeff to go faster though 'cuz I wanted to be OUT of this storm's path! Especially with LT in the back - the last thing I needed was something flying through the window. (I usually think of the worst, ya know.) So we get off at Stacy. Well, Stacy was hit. Hard. Trees were down. Power lines were down. People were standing in the streets. We decided to keep going as father in law called again saying another string of storms were on the way and just going through White Bear. PERFECT! AND... to top things off, a Tornado was 'reported' in Rockville which is where the cabin is. GREAT! So now I'm worried about everyone that's already up there! So we zoomed over to my stepbrother, Brian's house. We assumed they weren't home (as we heard they were out on a boat somewhere) so we tried to get into the garage via the code. Well the power was out so that wasn't going to work. Just then, he walks out of the house with my sister in law. The plan was to go to my other stepbrother's which is only a mile away. So we packed up the people again and headed further on down. After dodging a few large trees in the roads, made it to Chris'. He still had power. YES! Got into the house after getting the garage code and we sat inside for about 2 hours. We waited for the storm to lighten up and then headed back out around 9pm. And poor LT - - poor kid just wanted to go to bed but we were on the move! So we squeezed back into the car and headed to the cabin. I then get a call from my brother Jason (who's already up at the cabin.) "Lyss, you may want to make other plans for tonight. We don't have any power and they're saying it may not be up for a few days and they blocked off the road due to trees being down and they aren't letting anyone in." Well then. We figured since we were going to our friend's place to get those beanbags, why not ask if we can spend the night? (They weren't home, which made us think it wasn't going to work.) But lucky for us, they were just down the street at a neighbor's house and came home to let us in. We crashed at their place for the night. (We got there around 10pm.) Set up the pack'n'play and Jeff and I each had a couch. THANK YOU KATY AND KEITH for letting us pop in with NO notice to crash the party! We woke up the next morning, and headed up. Finally. On our way. Power wasn't back on yet but the electrical crews and firetrucks were all out, helping to put the pieces back together. The largest tree in our yard had been ripped up from the ground and had ALMOST fallen onto the neighbor's house. I can't believe this tree fell over compared to the other ones around it. It's THE BIGGEST TREE! Amazing. The neighbor's house was saved by their shed. WHEW! Since there really wasn't anything else going on, we went for a walk (and not too many people were awake yet at the cabin). Eventually the power was on and we were BACK IN BUSINESS! We unloaded the car (partially) and started our vacation :)

The next morning, the power went out again - this time due to a power line fire. AWESOME. Tree branch must have fallen on it that was leftover from the storm. But the power came back on a few hours later. I have to give props to the electricians! They work fast! The rest of the time at the cabin was absolutely PERFECT! We couldn't have asked for better weather, company or food. It was absolutely divine! LT loved the sand, the water, the munchies, seeing his cousins, everything! He ate a lot of dirt (which is a prerequisite before turning 1). I would hold his hands so he could walk and he would walk RIGHT into the lake. And would keep walking - I had to turn him around before he got too deep! We were outside EVERY DAY, ALL DAY! We'd wake up around 7, he'd eat, we'd take LT out for a walk, mom would get her coffee, then join dad and LT on the beach or in the hammock. We had to amuse ourselves so we wouldn't wake up the rest of the cabin. LT also experienced his first 4th of July and first parade! Which he didn't think too much of. It was about 1000 degrees outside (no exaggeration) so I think we were all a little uncomfortable. He ended up passing out in the stroller. My in-laws came up to visit for lunch one of the days and my friend Teri and 'her guest' came to visit also. I love company!

And of course, time went way too fast and before we knew it, it was Saturday morning and we were about to start our trek across the state to Duluth where we had to attend a baptism on Sunday morning. We were cutting through Brainerd to catch the highway straight east. Well, my grandma's in Brainerd so we HAD to stop. It's required :) So we had lunch with my grandma and grandpa and they enjoyed seeing LT! Grandma dug out all her little toy cars she had. LT liked them, however he liked the kitty book she had and her actually kitties, better. HA! We had lunch and then continued our way across the state to get to Duluth. Arrived in Duluth around 2:30, and settled into the hotel. Met up with our friends and their new baby, at the local bowling alley for some pizza and good company :) Sunday was the baptism and then finally, we were on our way home and arrived home around 2pm. It felt GREAT to be home! But of course, I missed the cabin immediately and don't know how I'm going to wait to go again until next year! (We share ownership of the cabin, so each family gets 4 weeks. My dad rents out 2 weeks, which leaves us with 2.) So ya gotta get your time in! I would like to start this as a tradition for LT, as again, it was absolutely perfect in every way!!!!!!! And below is a collection of the pictures I took. ENJOY!