Large Family Homeschool Life – Vacation 2023 Week!

Join us this week as our large homeschooling family takes our summer vacation!

Read all of the Large Family Homeschool Life posts!

NOTE: We have a 450 square foot cabin in the mountains that has been our annual vacation destination for years. There are around 30 cabins in a remote location at 9500 feet in elevation.

At the time of this entry, we have been in the mountains for a week, so we are fairly acclimatized.

MONDAY

On Saturday, our 4 month old puppy broke his leg after wriggling free and jumping from our daughter’s arms to get cereal that had fallen on the floor of the cabin. We raced him to the only vet in the area (we are in a VERY remote location!), and he took x-rays and decided a splint might be enough to keep the bone in place and get it to heal properly.

Today, the first order of the day is to run back to the vet for a check-up on Winston, so we loaded everyone into the van and went to town. Then, we turned right back around and went back to the cabin to eat lunch. On the trip, we saw bighorn sheep ewes!

Lunch today was Chicken Wraps and Chips. Usually we have sandwiches for lunch, but this was a nice change.

NOTE: Before we head out on vacation, I make a menu of all the meals we will need while we are out there and a corresponding grocery list. The kids and Ty give their input on what they would like to eat while out there, and I consider the time and space I have to cook in (this cabin is VERY small!).

About an hour and half from the cabin is a town with a WalMart where I do most of the grocery shopping before heading into the mountains. We pack the food all around the kids for that last leg of the trip.

A typical menu looks like this:
Breakfast – eggs and bacon, pancakes, omelets, or cereal
Lunch – Sandwiches or Wraps and chips
Dinner – Chili, Fried potatoes and hot dogs, Biscuits and Gravy, Taco Salad, Fish sandwiches, Hamburgers, and various sides

Yesterday, the kids went amethyst hunting while a few of us stayed behind to care for the dogs. I let them save a few choice pieces and we used the rest to create a rock garden in the front of the cabin. We already have a rock barrier between us and the path, so I just made a nice circle with a few of the bigger rocks and gave them a place to dump all of their “treasures.”

I did a load of laundry at the lodge across the path from our cabin while the kids played games and read in the lodge because our cabin had gotten quite warm from the heat of the sun coming in the back windows. The cabin stays nice and cool from the overnight temps being around 45, but once that sun starts shining in the windows toward late afternoon with a high of near 70, the cabin heats up.

As for laundry, I could easily do a load or two of laundry every day while out there with this many people (we had 9 total this time), but I try to do 3 loads every other day instead – this includes our towels. It is $1 to wash and $1 to dry in the lodge’s machines. We bring (and leave out there) our own laundry detergent and dryer sheets. Most of the cabins have their own washers and dryers, and no one has as many people as we do, so most of the time we have the machines all to ourselves, except for the caretakers who also use the machines.

While we are out here, we do a tremendous amount of walking. Most of walk at least 2 miles a day and we also read and draw and play outside a lot!

Speaking of reading, the cabin is where I catch up on any reading I haven’t managed to get done at home. I bring a lot of books, and usually finish them all! Today, I finished The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It was soooo good!

It had taken me 3 times to get any further in the book than the first chapter or two, but once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down! With only 50 pages left in the book, I still wasn’t sure I knew what was going on, and THAT is what constitutes a good book for me. So often, I can guess exactly what is going on, so I really enjoy a book that keeps me guessing!

Now, on to The Gulag Archipelago! Not even close to the same genre as Evelyn Hardcastle, but something I have been wanting to read ever since I read Live Not By Lies by Rod Drerer, which references The Gulag over and over again.

That evening, Ty and walked our dog, Kip, who is a tri-colored French Brittany. He loves to run the mountains, so we usually walk him about 1.5 miles and let him play in the streams along the way. Our mini poodle was coming along for the jaunts until he broke his leg. *sad face*

We also picked rhubarb at the cabin of a friend. They don’t like rhubarb, but we LOVE it, so I was happy to have hers! We always make rhubarb crisp while we are up here because our cabin has rhubarb too, but with picking more rhubarb we’ll be able to take some home. Another couple down the way gave me their Rhubarb Cream Pie recipe, so I’m looking forward to trying that!

For supper, we had Biscuits and Sausage Gravy. I just use a biscuit mix while we are up here because I don’t have a lot of room to roll out biscuits.

At night, the kids watched a movie at the lodge because there is more seating there and then they all came back to take showers. After that, we laid out all the pallets and bedding.

Our current bedding arrangement is to put a queen air mattress at the foot of our bed with the 2 older girls on it (however, it deflated toward the end of our trip, and we will have to come up with something different or get a new one). We have 2 recliners in the living room that 2 of the little boys sleep on with the 3rd little boy on a pallet on the floor in there. The 2 little girls are also on a pallet in the living room. Kip sleeps on his bed (or tries to get in bed with us) and Winston sleeps in his crate next to me so I can get up with him if he needs pain meds in the night or needs to go out to the bathroom. If that’s the case, I wake Ty up to go with me so I don’t get eaten by a bear while I’m out there!

We are packed in the cabin like sardines at night, but in the morning, we fold everything up and put it neatly in a corner so we have plenty of room to move around.

TUESDAY

Ty and the kids went to town today, so I stayed behind with the dogs. I baked a rhubarb crisp and bread pudding for dessert and breakfast the next day.

I gave Winston a good brushing so he won’t get matted. 8 weeks in a splint is going to be a long time to have him all bandaged up. I wish we could just stay out here and let this vet care for him the entire time, but we will be back toward the end of his healing time so he can see him again.

I took a walk and then checked my wildflower book to identify a few flowers. There are so many blooming right now!

I did 2 more loads of laundry, and then taped off a painting project I want to do today. However, it started to rain, so I left it out in the yard and came back in to enjoy the rain from inside the cabin. The nice thing about the mountains is that even though my project got rained on, it will dry quickly with such low humidity after the rain has passed.

My painting project is one that the previous caretakers here made for us. It is an old reclaimed wood coffee table for our front porch to give us another place to eat while we are out here as a family. She had all the kids put their handprints on the top in different colors of paint, and then she painted the sides red. I’m not a fan of the red, so I decided to tape off the top where the handprints are and spray paint the sides brown like the cabin.

For lunch, I just made myself a sandwich, then I read a bit in The Gulag Archipelago, which promptly put me to sleep. Unfortunately, this book regularly puts me to sleep!

Then, I vacuumed the cabin since no one else was here. And since Kip has been enjoying the streams and lakes, I decided to brush him and rub him down with lavender oil so he will smell better.

In case you are wondering about these cabins, the original set were from a homesteaded tract of land that was eventually turned into a dude ranch. Later, it was sold and became a “trout club” back in the heyday of supper clubs, with more cabins being built. There was a restaurant in the lodge and dances in the dance hall on the hill above our place. Our cabin was the bunkhouse for the ranch hands – thus the reason it is so small!

When Ty’s dad bought the cabin in the late 80’s, it was a very rustic place with one room, a bathroom and no kitchen. Over the years, Ty’s dad put in a nicer bathroom setup, a kitchenette in one section of the big room, and later added on another room that serves as a large bedroom and additional living space.

After finishing up the last load of laundry, I started the potatoes and onions for tonight’s supper. I put butter in the largest cast iron skillet we have out there, and sliced the potatoes and onions into it, trying not to turn them too often. My mom always tells me how the best fried potatoes she ever made happened by accident when a salesman came to her door and she left them sitting on the stove rather than turning them as much as she usually did.

Around 6pm, the children and Ty poured into the cabin full of happy stories, joyful noises, and hungry tummies! I quickly warmed up some hot dogs in another cast iron skillet, and we had a yummy dinner, followed by rhubarb crisp and fudge from town for dessert.

The kids played outside while the 14 year old did the dishes since it was his turn. Then, they went to the lodge to watch their evening movie.

NOTE: Dishwashing duty is assigned from oldest to youngest (who is capable), rotating at every meal. I pitch in as needed, but am not a part of the rotation, since I do most of the cooking while we are there. This trip, the rotation included the 22 year old, the 18 year old, the 14 year old, the 12 year old, and the 10 year old with the 8 year old pitching to dry dishes when we needed more space. We have a large drying mat laid over the only counter space we have available, but sometimes it isn’t enough room for all the meal’s dishes.

WEDNESDAY

For breakfast, we had the bread pudding I made yesterday. I whipped up a sauce for it this morning and the kids loved it!

Some people from another cabin stopped by to ask if we would dog and cat sit for their animals while they are gone for a day or two, so several of us headed over to their cabin to get the rundown. Our 12 year old son is very good with animals, so he took notes and will be in charge.

For lunch, we had sandwiches and leftovers. The food is starting to dwindle, so we are needing to get creative.

I went on a 6 hour hike with Ty while the kids stayed at the cabin with the dogs. When we got back, we were dirty and exhausted! I had to take a shower before I could enjoy supper. Our 18 year old had made mac n cheese and baked potatoes with all the fixin’s.

I ended up having a very rough night with restless legs. I later learned that restless legs get worse at altitude, and I probably need to up my iron and magnesium intake before going to the cabin and while we are there in the future.

THURSDAY

This morning, I made breakfast burritos and coffee, then Ty and I took a long walk.

I finished The Preacher’s Bride this morning. It is a wonderful book based on the life of John Bunyan’s wife, Elizabeth’s, life.

For lunch, we drove down the mountain to a favorite little restaurant to have burgers and fries and ice cream, then we regrouped at the cabin and then took the kids out on a 1 1/2 hour hike.

For dinner that night, we had pulled pork sandwiches, mac n cheese, and tortilla chips and salsa.

That night, we played games at the lodge with friends. We played Pass the Trash and 31, and had lots of laughs!

FRIDAY

I picked more rhubarb this morning. I now have around 4 gallons to use when we get home!

Ty and I walked the dog by the lake, but it got cut short because a deer came after Kip. She probably has a fawn bedded down nearby and wanted to keep Kip from going near.

We went to town for Winston’s final vet appointment before leaving the mountains. The vet re-splinted Winston’s leg and gave us some more meds for him. We also talked about a treatment plan once we return home.

While we were at the vet’s, we ran into a girl who recently graduated from the same small college our oldest son graduated from in 2020! Small world!

After the appointment, we went into town and ate at a restaurant we’d never eaten at before. It was so yummy! We had salsa fresca and lots of other delicious taco selections.

After lunch, I hung out with Winston and Mercy in the park while Ty took the 8 and up crew to a mining museum. We hadn’t been to the museum in about 14 years, so very few of the kids remembered it.

It was a lot of work taking care of both the puppy and the 6 year old who was terribly bored, so I decided to walk them across town and corral them in the van. It reminded me of the “baby days” when I would often stay behind while the older kids went places with Ty. I actually don’t mind staying behind, especially on a day like today when I am so tired from such a rough night.

On our way out of town, we called our son back home. He has a fever and sore throat, so we wanted to check on him. We also texted our 25 year old son who is currently in Spain with his wife and her family.

At the cabin, our older girls made bacon and pancakes for our final supper here in the mountains. Very little food will need to be carted home, which is a good thing!

That night, I put in one last load of laundry and then started people through the shower so I can put in a load of towels as well. Tomorrow morning, I’ll do a load of bedding as we clean the cabin in prepration to leave.

Ty put in the original Magnificent Seven for our evening movie. We ALWAYS watch this movie at the cabin. It is one of our 22 year old daughter’s favorite movies, and often signals the end of our vacation.

We had a lovely trip back home and a lovely vacation all around! Thanks for sharing it with us!