I'll be honest. With all of the traveling we've been doing lately, the idea of packing up - yet again - to go on one more road trip with just our family didn't thrill me. However, since this time the destination was Sunriver and not somewhere along the I-5 corridor, it did make it more enticing.
By the time Thursday came around, I was genuinely excited again. We'd solved the "abandoning Sydney" issue by having the Schilling family stay at our home while we were gone. (They were going to visit their former youth pastor's brand new baby and Traig had a Harlow-friends social event to attend). I was able to get the house pretty spruced up, sheets cleaned, laundry caught up - and everything packed and ready to go by the time John pulled in around 4:00 on Thursday. Since the kids had no-school on Friday, we had an extra day.
This whole trip came about, ironically, because of my annual Sage Springs Spa visit with the girls in our post-Christmas vacation. This year, they were offering a deal, if you purchased a certain dollar amount of gift certificate for the spa (or other Sunriver services), then you got a free night to stay at a lodge cabin, sometime before May. John purchased one, I purchased one, and then, because they couldn't justify a one day visit, Michele and Michael kindly gave us the one they purchased. Three free nights in Sunriver? Despite any amount of previous travel, this was something we definitely needed to make happen.
The kids were much more amicable on the trip over than the previous weekend, and the scenery was beautiful. Oregon is so gorgeous.
Once we got to the other side of the mountains, it's as if a part of my soul was renewed. I love the feel, the views, the smells, the "atmosphere" - I get over here and breathe a huge sigh of "All is well".
Views within and just outside of Sisters.
When we arrived at the lodge to check in, we were pleasantly surprised to hear that we'd been upgraded to a suite-unit. Now we had a two-story little condo - beds and additional bathroom in a loft upstairs, fireplace, deck with rocking chairs, kitchenette. Score!
The beauty of this weekend was that there was no need to have to wake up to an alarm for three mornings. Of course, that doesn't mean I still won't wake up at 6:30, but unlike any given day, on this weekend, naps are allowed.
We spent Friday not leaving Sunriver. Mikayla and I walked to the Sunriver Village, cruised around and brought back doughnuts for the boys. Along the way, we discovered the huge hot tubs adjacent to our unit - I did NOT know that was part of the lodging around here....another huge score! So, that's where our family went next - I stayed especially long, soaking in the sunshine while reading my Kindle. (So far, three books completed....)
For dinner, courtesy of the discovery Mikayla and I made on our previous walk, we ate at the newly remodeled "Village Bar and Grill". It's a rare day that a restaurant has offerings that make every one if the family happy - beverages included. (Shirley Temples and Henry Weinhard's Root Beer in a bottle?....oh happy day!) Before leaving, we told our waitress we'd probably be seeing her the next night as we were so impressed and ready to repeat the experience.
The plan for Saturday was to head into the Old Mill District of Bend and see "GI Joe". Mikayla was less than thrilled about this movie choice, but it was kind of a leftover plan from Brayden's birthday so we committed to seeing it. Enjoyable, captivating - and it scored points for not inundating the viewer with bad language.
Upon returning, the kids really wanted to visit the SHARC - the new pool built at Sunriver. Since the weather was in the low 50's, there was no way we'd be taking advantage of the outdoor pool offerings, so it was just the indoor portion (that the kids had already been at) we'd be visiting. John and I were way less than enthusiastic about doing that, so we tried to bribe the kids to choose an alternate activity. We settled on a visit to "Fort Rock Park". It was empty...perhaps the only time I've seen it that way. We enjoyed some tether ball tournaments (pretty clear that Mikayla plays that both recesses) and goofed off as a family.
We also decided to pick out a board game at the toy store near our restaurant to play as a family after dinner. It was hard to pull the kids from the store as there were lots of things in there that caught their attention.
Following another great dinner - and another trip to the hot tub, we played "Hit or Miss". It was a great game for our family. Very simple concept, you are given a category (like "Things you'd find at a picnic"), everyone lists as many ideas as you can think of while the 45 second timer goes through its sand, and then, one by one, each player rolls a die to determine if you are looking for a HIT or MISS from your list. If you roll a HIT, you pick one of your words that you think the most people are also going to have on their list, if you roll MISS, you pick something that you think no one else listed. Points are allocated based on matches.... John ended up winning. We realized our kids don't have a good handle on what a household appliance is (no, it's not the heater or a toilet), and (not surprisingly), their grasp on "normal household chores" was definitely lacking.
We requested a late check-out this morning. None of us are ready to leave. The forecast is actually calling for a chance of snow today (yesterday, mini flakes of snow were falling, even with blue skies directly overhead). This place is magical - and our family has definitely bonded in our stay here. It DEFINITELY exceeded my low expectations from the beginning of the week.
Until next time Sunriver!
#20daysinapril
4/9 45m "hike" with whitley
4/10 60m volleyball
4/11 75m brisk walk
4/12 30m brisk walk
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