Escape to the Pines
So remember how I explained about the monsoon madness that struck the week we were leaving on vacation?
Well, once we got on the road Friday the storms were making another appearance. We decided to take the 60 through the Salt River Canyon after hearing about the traffic trying to get through Payson, but lots of rain meant lots of rocks washing into the road in the canyon. It made for slower, stressful travel in a stretch that is not exactly the easiest road to travel in the first place. (Hint: B, K, and myself were all on Dramamine.) But we made it at last, though we barely had time to unload our gazillion bags and leave the kids before heading back out to get some groceries. Terence and I went alone (ah, the joys of having kids old enough to babysit) so the good part was spending some time together. But if you may remember, I was already a stress basket case. Anxiety had been making it really, really hard for me to breathe at moments during the day (and the jump in elevation wasn't helping at this point). All I wanted was to climb into bed. Our shopping didn't take long, but checking out???? That was a 45 minute wait. I kept having flashbacks to when we used to shop at the Walmart in Gallup.
Anyway, eventually I did get to climb into bed. The cabin we had was very nice and spacious. Terence and I had a master suite to ourselves, which was lovely (usually on vacation we are sharing a room with at least two-- if not all-- of the kids). But I slept terribly. I couldn't draw breath (possibly more elevation change issues). Still, by morning when I ran with my sisters the stress was finally easing. I had high hopes that it would dissipate entirely.
For the most part it did. Saturday was the "official" reunion day, though we had to change up the schedule due to the (suprise!) rain. We had breakfast together as an extended family, and at some point when the rain finally stopped, I took a group of the kids to play mini golf.
Well, once we got on the road Friday the storms were making another appearance. We decided to take the 60 through the Salt River Canyon after hearing about the traffic trying to get through Payson, but lots of rain meant lots of rocks washing into the road in the canyon. It made for slower, stressful travel in a stretch that is not exactly the easiest road to travel in the first place. (Hint: B, K, and myself were all on Dramamine.) But we made it at last, though we barely had time to unload our gazillion bags and leave the kids before heading back out to get some groceries. Terence and I went alone (ah, the joys of having kids old enough to babysit) so the good part was spending some time together. But if you may remember, I was already a stress basket case. Anxiety had been making it really, really hard for me to breathe at moments during the day (and the jump in elevation wasn't helping at this point). All I wanted was to climb into bed. Our shopping didn't take long, but checking out???? That was a 45 minute wait. I kept having flashbacks to when we used to shop at the Walmart in Gallup.
Anyway, eventually I did get to climb into bed. The cabin we had was very nice and spacious. Terence and I had a master suite to ourselves, which was lovely (usually on vacation we are sharing a room with at least two-- if not all-- of the kids). But I slept terribly. I couldn't draw breath (possibly more elevation change issues). Still, by morning when I ran with my sisters the stress was finally easing. I had high hopes that it would dissipate entirely.
For the most part it did. Saturday was the "official" reunion day, though we had to change up the schedule due to the (suprise!) rain. We had breakfast together as an extended family, and at some point when the rain finally stopped, I took a group of the kids to play mini golf.
But all my anxiety was starting to kick in. The dreaded vacation headache began to make an appearance. I went to lie down for a little while after lunch, hoping that it would ease up. The rest helped a tiny bit, but when I joined the family bingo game in the late afternoon, my head was throbbing. I kept going though, determined not to let it get to me. Ibuprofen helped dull it, and I got my part of the dinner made, enjoyed the time with sisters and their families, took the kids swimming, and even went to play five games of racquetball with Terence that night. (I love, love, love racquetball!)
Sunday we got all the kids up and headed out to church. The ward we attended was seriously packed with people but as we soon learned, something like 90% of all the people who were there were visitors. That must be quite the experience, being a permanent member of a ward which mostly consists of tourists or summer-only residents! However, during church my mild headache decided it was time to take over. By the end of Sacrament meeting, I was pressing at my forehead and feeling nauseous. Terence was willing to cut out early and go back to the cabin, but the plan was to stay all three hours, and S asked me about going to class. So I decided to tough it out. Sunday school was long, though we sat in the back and I leaned on Terence through the whole thing. Relief Society was pure torture, which just figured because how often do I get to go to Relief Society? I think I've been once (on vacation in California) during the last five years.
After church, Terence and my father gave me a priesthood blessing of healing. It was quite a special experience and there were words said that I just needed to hear. After that, Terence sent me off to bed to rest and hopefully recover.
The worst part about all this? It was Terence's birthday. How about that timing? It's Terence's birthday and I wasn't functional-- left him to clean up and do some laundry (S had managed to go through her entire packed wardrobe in 1.5 days). But the blessing worked and after a couple hours of rest my headache was gone. It didn't make a reappearance for the rest of the trip. So grateful for priesthood blessings!!!
That night we all crammed into my parents' cabin to celebrate another year of Terence's life. Awww!
Monday was the 4th of July, of course, and we had more fun planned, though less with the cousins. Terence and I got in another set of racquetball games, we took the kids swimming again, made it out for a short hike overlooking the Mogollon Rim, and then in the evening went out to watch the fireworks in Show Low. All in all, a very full but enjoyable day.
Tuesday was the big fishing day. I had no desire to fish, but my dad rented a couple of boats and took B, Bryson and Braden out with my brother-in-law to spend the morning fishing. The rest of us got out on a morning hike near the Little Colorado river. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect! And there were trees, pine trees galore!!! Ah, if anything took away my stress it was that. I wish I had gotten some pictures, but I was too busy admiring my surroundings (and keeping an eye on a herd of children) to break out the phone. Then we headed out to Big Lake and met up with the fishing crew. We had a picnic lunch (shared with spiders and other creepy crawlies) and then left J to join the fishing crowd. Back at the cabin, I got in a workout and played another couple of racquetball games with Terence (boy, am I going to miss the racquetball). Then we left all the kids and my parents took us out to dinner in Show Low. Some of my food was awesome (the cheese crisp and the fish taco), some less so (the taco salad was icky) but the company was perfect. It was a late night when we got back because we had to get everything packed up and ready to go so we could get a reasonably early start on Wednesday, but hey, I managed to tackle that packing up with hardly any anxiety at all.
The trip home was easy and uneventful, but now I have to tackle real life again. *sigh* Even worse, it feels like my summer is already over. I got the kids' class assignments and supply lists this morning. I'm not ready to go back to school!!!!
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