Posted in Making Memories

Growing up my family spent every Labor Day weekend... laboring!  As a family, we would can peaches or tomatoes to the sounds of the Jerry Lewis telethon in the background or peel bushels of green chile until your back ached or you got chile in your eyes.  If we weren't preserving, we were painting or cleaning rentals with my grandparents.  For the longest time that is what I thought this holiday meant; that one was supposed to labor & work LOL!

Well, not this year!  This year my dh had vacation over Labor Day!  I thought it was a mistake but I had no idea why.  Dh planned for us to spend a few days at a hotel in Farmington, NM so he could go golf which I thought was reasonable since he had a forgotten gift certificate that he hadn't used from 1999! - poor guy.  While he did that, the kids and I went to the Farmington museum and learned all about how they find and produce oil and gas.  It was so fascinating.  But this was our first vacation mistake:  don't bring the dog on vacation with you.  She had to stay tied to the car at the museum and she didn't like it one bit.  (Hey!  I didn't plan the vacation - it was dh's idea to take the dog -lol).   

In the afternoon, we picked up dh and drove to the Four Corners area and we got to stand on 4 states all at once: UT, CO, AZ & NM.  It was a long drive but fun until the kids started bickering over what movie to watch!  Mistake #2:  Don't tell the kids that you brought a DVD player to watch movies in the car or else you will never hear the end of the question, "Can we watch a movie?" even when you are looking at the most beautiful scenery.

Back in town we searched for a letterbox which is my passion.  I have never been disappointed with a box even if we didn't find the box because the hikes are usually soooo amazing and it is super family time.  At this box, we saw a skunk (but not too close) and we ended up at a wonderful memorial to all those who fought for our country.  2DS6 became so fascinated with the story of the Navajo code talkers and I learned that this kid is reeeealllly into the different fighter airplanes that were used in the war.  I didn't know that he knew so much and that he had read about these on his own.  I am ashamed that it took a vacation for his mom to notice that -- I'd better work on that.  Mistake #3:  Don't wait until everyone is hungry to eat.  We didn't stop to eat dinner before finding the letterbox and it was nearly dark when we left so by the time we agreed on something to eat and found it, it was very late and we were all tired, hungry and grouchy. 

The next day we bought groceries and checked out of the hotel intending to go camping for the remainder of our vacation.  We knew of another letterbox at the Salmon Ruins so we stopped there on the way to the campsite.  Salmon Ruins were just amazing.  This was the 11th century ancient Pueblo site that once contained 3 stories of approximately 300 rooms.  The self-guided tour was fascinating but alas the letterbox was gone which is always disappointing even at such a great place as this was.  From there we headed to what we thought was to be our campsite but rain, thunder and lightning just washed us out.  We actually had picked our site and had just started putting up our tent when the rain just gully washed us.  Of course we were also fast running out of sunlight (& gas in the car).  We threw (literally) everything back into the car and left soaking wet.  We drove to the next closest town which was Pagosa Springs, CO but there wasn't a room to be had in the entire town.  Rain stopped but hungry once again with a whole back of the car full of food but needing a campfire we stopped on the side of the road and fixed dinner, repacked the car whose stuffing’s were driving everyone crazy and finally had a laugh because my 3DS6 said, "He was no longer boring" (he meant to say bored but it came out wrong every time he said it).  Mistake #4:  Check the weather and if your dh says he checked the weather you check it again just to be sure. 

Fed, dry and feeling more optimistic we drove to the next little town but by the time we arrived, the town was already asleep.  I couldn't keep my eyes open either and the kids had long since dosed off.  All I know is that the next morning we awoke, still sleeping in the car, next to a beautiful lake with stiff necks and achy backs.  Again dh cooked on the side of the road and we enjoyed pancakes, bacon and hot coffee while watching the sun come up over the ridge and seeing that the early birds are the fisherman in boats on the lake.  The boys explored and thoroughly enjoyed the surprise of waking up next to Abiquiu Lake.  Unfortunately once again there wasn't a vacancy at the campgrounds!!!  Honestly, I didn't know that you could make reservations for a campground site so you learn something everyday LOL.

Again we drive making up silly car games like "Our family goes on vacation and we forget to bring...." but in our case it was a little too close to the truth about what we forgot.  We end up in Los Alamos which my 1DS10 liked because he had just read a book about "the secret city on the hill".  In 2000, there was a huge forest fire here that nearly burned the whole city.  I can't believe after 7 years that you can still see the devastating effects of this fire.  We ended up stopping at a local park to walk the dog that was sending us "smoke signals" that a stop would be in our best interest (see mistake #1).  We found a nice little walking path along the ridge of the city that overlooked the canyon.  It would have been a great spot to plant a letterbox but we were not prepared and we were still on a time frame to put up the tent and set up camp.  The walking path had the coolest looking caterpillar walking along and why I didn't have my mommy radar on and tell my boys not to touch it escapes me (oh!  I remember - it was my sleeping arrangements the night before that made my thinker not work to clearly).  Anyhow the boys touched it and the thing zapped them with poison but luckily it wasn't too horrible because they eventually stopped howling.  Mistake #5:  If a bug looks quite interesting but you have no clue to what it is, don't pick it up and hold it!  (More on him in another post).

Back in the car, holding hurt little fingers we drive on seeing deer, wild turkeys, and a fox but no empty campsites.  We end up finally at a little mountain lake (with the other half of the state) wondering if this must be God's way of saying for us to go home.  Again hungry, we pull out the campstove to cook yet again another belated lunch.  The kids end up playing in the stream, finding fish, tadpoles and crawfish.  They have a mud fight while mom again falls asleep on the grass and poor dad starts lunch - honestly I just kept falling asleep everywhere (and why dad didn't pack peanut butter is mistake #6).  We both watch the clouds and finally decide that enough is enough.  As much as we didn't want to go home, we didn't want to chance setting up the tent in another gully washer and then be sick from catching colds, miserable and wet.  As soon as lunch was done we headed home and FINALLY the first reasonable decision we made because no sooner had we packed it up and started driving, it started pouring rain.

So next Labor Day weekend I think I will stay home and freeze green beans or find something just as interesting to Labor at!  LOL It really was a great time with some wonderful memories to treasure and really dh did a fabulous job planning our trip so in all it was a fabulous vacation even with all our mistakes.  

Vacationer: Someone with more money than time.
Traveler: Someone with more time than money.