Life as a Yowler

Unfortunately our Gascho vacation has come to an end. We had a great last day yesterday. Brandon and I and the kids continue on now, and Brandon will work on some store trainings. It’s back to reality now. It’s not that we don’t do anything fun….obviously that’s not true. We do all kinds of stuff after work hours. It’s just back to the grind of time frames, traveling(it really is a lot on Brandon to drive the RV), and single parenting for me during his work and travel time.

Yesterday started early. We had a lot to fit into one day, so Lance wanted to start out at 7am. I highly debated joining Evan and Grant and doing what’s called “the incline.” The incline used to be a railroad  track.  Today, it consists of approximately 2744 steps made entirely of railroad ties. Although it’s only one mile in length, the ascension averages a 41% incline (68% at its highest) and a 2,000 foot climb in elevation! Back in my prime, I was in great shape. I was hesitant to join though, because these days my days consist mostly of keeping 4 kids plus myself alive and surviving. There’s not too much intense working out going on. I think I made the right choice. 

Evan and Grant started out excited and energetic and maybe a little prideful. There was a war veteran who took off with them who had no legs. He was climbing with just his arms. Grant and Evan were both thinking to themselves “if this hero can do this….we are more than capable.”  They did great for awhile. They realized quickly that the higher they got, the taller the steps got. They progressively kept getting bigger until they were about 2.5 feet tall. Evan got about 1800 steps up and realized he just might die today. His legs were screaming. He tried his best to suffer through, then said “Grant. I’m sorry. I’m going to have to go back and leave you to finish alone.” Grant was fine with that. Evan went back about 50 steps and saw this elderly woman, about 80 years old.  She was managing to crawl up the steps. She was literally crawling and gasping for air, but refusing to give up. She really wanted to complete the incline in her life. Evan thought to himself, “well crap,  I can’t let her show me up.” So he turned back around. He finished in about an hour and 15 minutes. Grant finished in about an hour. Now I’m haunted with the question, “could I have finished also?” I really think I could have. I’m not in the best shape of my life, but I love hiking, and I have great determination for stuff like that. I probably would have even beat Evan. Who knows.

After the incline, we went to Seven Falls. We had a beautiful walk in to the park. It would have been a lot more fun if the kids weren’t hungry and grumps. It was still a nice walk.

The falls

It wasn’t nearly The Incline, but I did climb down the steps from the falls rather than taking the elevator. It’s nice having so many family members around to help with kids, so I’m able to do more of what I love to do….exercise and hike.

My parents, Brandon, and the kids took the ride back while Lance, Grant and I walked. It was an amazing, beautiful walk.

Next came Pike’s Peak. We drove all the way up. Now let me preface this…I started out very excited. We have driven through a lot of mountains. We’ve even driven through them in the RV. We were in the suburban, so I wasn’t worried at all. When we started out, the ranger checked over our vehicle. She checked our tires and our brakes. She made sure each child was properly buckled in a car seat. We’ve never had that happen before. My worry immediately starts to go up. Then the ranger said, “how old is the baby?” We told her eight months. She says, “ok. We don’t allow babies younger than 6 months up the mountain because of the elevation, but since she’s 8 months, you are ok to go. Just keep a close eye on her. If she starts to turn blue or starts gasping for air, drive down immediately.” 😳😳😳 say what? Well now I’m pumped for this super fun family road trip up the mountain.

The drive up was pretty terrible. I couldn’t enjoy it. The road was so narrow and the drop off was incredible. Isla was asleep and I kept smacking her in the cheek to make sure she was still alive. She wasn’t even hardly budging. I turned to more drastic measures. I kept shaking her car seat. As soon as I could see a foot move, I would stop. The one time I was border line shaken baby syndrome shaking the seat. She finally budged. Poor baby was just in a deep sleep from being tired. We made it to the top.

We death gripped the children and looked at the view.

We walked around the tracks. We also walked around the gift shop. I started to feel a little dizzy and my mom really started to feel dizzy and nauseous. We drove back down. I felt better about half way down the mountain. My mom didn’t feel better until half way through dinner. The elevation really messed with her.

Lance chose a Mongolian place called HuHot Mongolian Grill for dinner. It was really good. It was similar to Mongolian BBQ. You fill up your bowl, then take it up to the chefs to be grilled.

Waiting for our food.

Isla even got to enjoy some veggies. Oh and by the way…she lived. She also didn’t turn blue. Thank you Lord for her good strong set of lungs.

We said goodbye to mom, dad, Evan, Lance, and Grant. They had to go catch a flight home. We went back to our RV, which was parked at Aunt Brenda’s ranch for the week(we had been sleeping in the rental house all week with my family). We had a bonfire with Brenda’s family. Then we went to bed. The morning started early this morning for Brandon. He got up at 5:45. Next stop is Utah!