Saturday, April 23, 2011

Getting away...and being prepared.

On Thursday morning I packed up my boys and we headed to Donner Lake to visit my aunt and uncle. They recently purchased a cabin on the lake and invited us to come and stay with them.

Chris was on a roll at work and made the decision to stay home. Which was fine...but it made me more aware of traveling with my kids to a place I hadn't traveled before with the possibility of snow fall while traveling. I wasn't nervous...but I was definitely thinking a little deeper while packing.

I'm thinking you're all familiar with the story of The Donner Party...and trust me, this was at the forefront of my mind as I preparing for the trip. You'd have thought we were staying with my aunt and uncle for a week the way I packed!

I packed extra blankets and extra warm clothes for all of us. I had a case of water in the back of the car for sports practices and such...so I just left it there. I packed extra food, too...not a lot, but enough for an emergency.

I'm happy to say the drive up was uneventful. We listened to music, stopped for lunch and marveled at the snow along the way. It was so beautiful. Perfect for our mini getaway...

After a nice visit, a little shopping, an overnight stay and some playing in the snow we packed up the car and headed home. It was snowing a little on the way, and I'd never driven in snow, but it was fine. And so pretty. And I felt good knowing that should we have a problem or run into a sudden storm and road closure, the boys and I would be fine until help arrived. (I know, I know...I've been told I can be a bit of a drama queen. But hey...what if there HAD been an emergency? Who'd be the drama queen THEN?! Huh?!)

Anyway...it was a great 24 hours...and a lot of fun! Glad we were able to have a mini getaway and spend some time with family. Thank you D and Hyla...we had a great time!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

: )

Sandy said...

It only makes sense that you'd want to be prepared. When did we decide that we had to apologize for that? Especially without another adult to help you, you did what any reasonable person should have. Working on preparedness has forever changed the way I think. If I have a friend going on a trip, it's going to pop into my head to ask her if she's taking an emergency kit. :)

Eliza J said...

So glad you survived, and that picture is beautiful! I'm sure it will be a much nicer visit in warmer weather. Those darn "what if's"! They can protect us and hinder us all at the same time...you just never know, and yes, being prepared is a good thing!

teekaroo said...

I've gotten accustomed to traveling alone with the kids, so I don't think too much about it, but this last run away we had kind of scared me. We were almost home, driving over a mountain pass and it was raining. Suddenly, we hit 2 inches of slush. I guess a hail storm had just passed through. It was a little scary there for a minute... we had almost come to a stand still because of it and the truck behind us was still coming fast. I realized then that my emergency kit was still at the house! Little miss prepared was unprepared! Thankfully, we didn't need any emergency items, but it was a lesson to me. Good job for being prepared.

Wren said...

Beautiful photo! So glad you had a safe and fun time! Finally warm here today with a bit of sun : )...
Happy Easter to you!

Mavis said...

I Heart Mini Vacations :)