Tag: Island Park

Island Park, Idaho – Day 4, The Long Road Home

The final day of our Island Park, Idaho vacation was our last attempt to salvage a weekend gone wrong.  Mountain Dad’s broken ribs along with my and little g’s illnesses were shaping the trip into a negative experience.  We had such high hopes at the outset of enjoying the plethora of snowmobiling trails but unfortunately we had not been able to enjoy much of anything.  Because of this I decided that the last morning we would force some fun…at least for our kids.

Big E and his cousins had spent some time digging in the snow outside our condo.  The result of their efforts was a cool snow fort, complete with tunnels and penguin slides.  On our final morning the kids got all bundled up to enjoy some final sliding around.

After playing in the snow we tried snowshoeing. With the metal maws strapped on their feet they stomped around the field out back for about ten minutes before declaring that it was too cold and coming back inside.

By then it was time to pack things up so Heather and I loaded kids and stuff (including the puked on port-o-crib) into her car and started out.  Mountain Dad had decided to tempt fate and go on a snowmobile ride with my brother-in-law Jonathan.  After all, we drove the machines all the way out there and he didn’t want all that effort to be wasted.  On one hand I appreciate that sentiment, especially since I did all of the loading for the trip.  On the other hand his ribs were broken.  He had broken them by snowmobiling…how wise was it to go again?

While Mountain Dad and Jonathan snowmobiled out to Big Spring, Heather and I drove back to her place and started unpacking and cleaning.  One of the unfortunate truths of motherhood is that sometimes you have to handle disgusting things. This was one of those moments.  Despite rinsing out little g’s soiled bedding the day before, the stench of vomit was quite strong. Being nauseated myself, smelling the fumes wasn’t the best, but I managed to plug my nose and get everything into the washing machine without puking.  The real trick was how to wash the port-o-crib frame and mattress, since they were too large and bulky to wash by traditional means.  Had it been summertime I would’ve hooked up the hose and sprayed everything down outside. It was winter, however, so we had to come up with something else.  Thankfully, my sister inherited my mom’s MacGyver talents and using her jetted bathtub and overhead showerhead we created an oversized washing machine in her bathroom. I added some soap, let the jets run for 10 minutes and by the end there was no trace of little g’s mess from the night before.

Soon Mountain Dad and Jonathan joined us and reported that their trip had been successful.  Apart from his ribs being excessively jostled by every bump on the trail, Mountain Dad survived the trip, enjoyed the scenery and was finally able to snowmobile.  Success!

We left my sisters and headed home, happy to have had some good times amidst the bad.  At least Big E had a great weekend of playing with cousins, sliding on snow and swimming.  For him it was probably his best vacation ever.  For me…well, not so much.

Island Park, Idaho – Day 3 Sickness Strikes

Nobody likes being sick, but it’s especially annoying to get sick when there’s something important going on.  That’s what happened on day three of our Island Park, Idaho snowmobiling adventure.  I woke up with terrible nausea, diarrhea and a headache. Soon little g also showed her colors by puking twice by breakfast time.

Not only was Mountain Dad out of commission from the previously mentioned cracked ribs, now little g and I were out of commission due to an unfortunate gastrointestinal assault.  This snowmobiling adventure was slowly plummeting down to the worst vacation ever.  Mountain Dad was NOT snowmobiling on the hundreds of miles of trails nearby. I was sleeping not-so-soundly with a crying baby at my side, trying not to throw up on her.  It sucked.

Luckily other adults were there, my sister and brother-in-law, to take care of Big E.  The only silver lining I can think of for this day was that Big E was entertained by playing with his cousins and did not try to jump on me and Mountain Dad constantly.

At one point I forced little g and I to go outside for some fresh air. After extended baby wrestling we were both exhausted. This is how she felt about getting snow clothes on to go outside:

Once we got outside it wasn’t much better.  She promptly flopped to the ground in the exact same position and cried long and loud for the whole two minutes my patience could stand.  We went back in.

The culmination of the day was at 9:00 pm.  Little g had been asleep for a few hours and we snuck into our shared room to go to sleep ourselves.  All of a sudden little g lets loose with what sounded like a poo-xplosion.

Mountain Dad said, “It sounds like g blew an O ring.”  Oh how I wish it had been poo, that would’ve stayed contained in a diaper and pj’s.  Unfortunately, when I shone the light in little g’s direction she sat on the mattress of the port-o-crib with vomit completely surrounding her.  She had laid in it, had it in her hair, got it all over her pj’s, the blanket, the mattress, and the frame of the crib.

The smell was disgusting, we were all tired and cranky but of course we had to clean her up.  She screamed through a bath, we sprayed off the crib, rinsed out the blankets and moved everything into the bathroom so we could breathe.  Despite all of the cleaning up there was still a lingering vomit smell.  We settled everyone down, again, and when we finally fell asleep that night we all hoped for a little bit better day in the morning.

Island Park, Idaho Day 2 – Snowmobiling and Swimming

Snowmobiling is one of Mountain Dad’s true joys in life.  His Christmas gift a month ago was the Polaris RMK 2013 model, seen here with me riding.

So we had been looking forward to this snowmobiling trip for a while.  Island Park has some amazing snowmobile trails and everyone who comes to stay in the winter comes with that purpose in mind.  I had never seen snowmobiles driving right up to the gas station or congregated in groups greater than thirty, but that’s the norm here in snowmobiling heaven.
Unfortunately Mountain Dad wasn’t able to fully enjoy this Mecca of snowmobile culture.  While unloading the truck he re-injured his sore rib, an injury he received by falling off his snowmobile three weeks before.  On the drive up he was feeling pretty positive about the injury so it was a slap in the face when he hurt himself before the trip really even started.  Well, I guess it was more a punch in the chest.  My doctor sister who was on the trip with us said it was most likely broken and the only real treatment was to let it heal on its own.  Needless to say Mountain Dad was bummed…and in pain.  Great start to the trip!
Since Mountain Dad was out of commission we decided to have a ladies’ ride.  Although snowmobiling is not my first choice for a snow sport, it is extremely fun.  I got to go fast and see beautiful trees and scenery.  Even my niece Cara enjoyed riding along with her mom. It was, truly, a ladies ride and lots of fun.
  
That wasn’t the end of the day, however.  Big E needed to get out of our two bedroom condo, for all of us to have some sanity.  As nice as the accomodations at Island Park Village Resort are, an exuberent three-year-old can’t be contained for long.  We took Big E and his cousins, Tyler and Ryan to the clubhouse for some swimming. Here they are in snow boots, coats and swim trunks. 
I really liked the clubhouse, since it was full of fun activities for kids. A ping pong table, foosball table, movies, arcade games were available for kids plus a sauna and workout room for adults.  There was a WARM pool, which was amazing, two smaller hot tubs and a kiddie pool only two feet deep that was the perfect temperature for a kids hot tub.  Together with my sister Heather we made whirlpools, played Marco Polo and splashed…a lot.

Big E does not know how to swim on his own yet.  Usually we have him in a life jacket at all times, but of course, I forgot to pack that. So instead I was on full time life guard duty.  And let me tell you, that kid would’ve drown fifty times over had Heather or I not been right there the whole time.  He is a wild child who can’t touch the bottom of the pool, yet jumps in with grand gusto at every turn. Whether an adult was in the pool to catch him or not he would jump in to the middle of the pool then flail and kick until someone who could touch the bottom helped him to the side.

His favorite phrase of the day was, “I want to do it myself!” which was usually accompanied by him pushing my arm away from holding him up in the water.  I thought of just letting him figure it out on his own but it caused me too much panic.  At one point he stood on the side of the pool and fell straight backward without even looking behind him.  He is fearless…I don’t know that it’s a good thing.

Day two came to a beautiful end and even though Mountain Dad was injured most of us had a really good time.  

Island Park, Idaho Day 1 – Packing

I believe in many feminist ideals.  We are strong humans with skills to rival many men out there.  I support women’s sports and agree that women should be compensated the same as men for the same job.

With that said, in my personal life, Mountain Dad is still responsible for the traditionally male roles of car maintenance and heavy lifting. I didn’t realize that I took him for granted in those areas until this last weekend when I was expected to do fill his role as well as my own.
This last weekend we went to Island Park, Idaho for a snowmobiling vacation. The way things worked out I was in charge of packing up clothes, food, snow gear, snowshoes and the snowmobiles and driving the truck and trailer through the Salt Lake City airport to pick up Mountain Dad. Friday I spent most of the day doing laundry, finding outfits, matching gloves, and loading everything into the truck.  It is shocking how much stuff we needed, but after meticulous planning I was sure that I had thought of everything.
While taking the seemingly endless trips back and forth to load up the truck life plummeted into chaos. On one return trip I found little g crying and Big E half naked.  Apparently he had peed his pants and when it was suggested that he put clean pants on he refused.  Little g could not believe that I had deserted her and was loudly complaining about it.  My sister-in-law Chelsea was there helping to feed, clothe and comfort them and it was still chaos. Because of the time constraints I did what I often do in these situations – ignore the madness and complete the task at hand.  Luckily Chelsea is a competent feminist woman and got things settled.
I finished loading the truck and turned to the most intimidating part of the day, hooking up the trailer.  Normally I am Mountain Dad’s assistant in this particular task.  He drives the truck in reverse, carefully lining up the hitch with the trailer attachment while I stand there waving my hands at him to tell him which way to go.  The last time I drove the truck with a trailer I ended up jackknifing the thing and paying for body damage so, needless to say, I was a little nervous.
I had asked a neighbor to help, and was grateful I had since I couldn’t even unlock the trailer lock.  It apparently requires a special wiggle or twist of the wrist that I get to impatient to handle.  Once the trailer was unlocked and the tire chalks removed I cautiously drove the truck into place.  My first attempt left the truck and trailer a good three feet apart.  My second attempt blocked the road, much to the concern of oncoming traffic.  My third attempt luckily was successful and my neighbor helped me lock the trailer onto the hitch.
There I was with the truck bed packed, the trailer hooked up and everything ready.  I had planned and prepared and felt a surprising sense of accomplishment for having loaded up everything without my husband.  It was hard and I did it!  I was awesome!  With kids in the car we took off to pick up Mountain Dad at the airport and begin our awesome adventure.  Big E and little g fell asleep fairly quickly and the ride was going swimmingly.  It wasn’t until I picked up Mountain Dad that I realized that I forgot a very important item – night diapers for my three year old.
So much for my feeling of accomplishment. We ended up stopping at Walmart in Blackfoot, Idaho.  Oh well, one extra stop is worth not having an extra week’s worth of laundry and a suitcase that smells of pee.