Cabin Getaway=Awesome

 

A few days before Christmas we took a three and a half hour drive to Madras, Oregon. Lake Billy Chinook was our destination to stay in one of their lakeside deluxe cabins. Hey, 50.00 a night is very appealing! We were told to bring everything you would need to go camping minus the tent. We got there after dark not knowing what beauty we would find ourselves surrounded by the following morning. It was breathtaking and amazingly serene. There are only three cabins, so we considered ourselves lucky to have found available dates near the holidays. This is a view of our cabin from a hike we took one morning. Our cabin is the one furthest to the left.

The cabins say they will sleep 5. Thank goodness Eli and Ivy are small enough to share a twin bed because the quarters were VERY TIGHT. The cabin had one bedroom with a bunk bed; where all 4 kids slept,one bathroom and a kitchen area with a futon; where Matt and I slept. It was cozy, cozy, cozy. Having only one bathroom was not ideal, but thankfully the men of the family could do most of their business off the front porch. Good thing during the mad morning rush to the facilities. The kitchen had a mini fridge and a microwave. I was sure there would be a small cook top, but posted in plain site on the wall was "only microwave cooking permitted". I had plans for eggs and pancakes. Dang! We tried bringing in our camp stove to cook eggs one morning. We even opened windows to make sure we didn't die, but the next thing we knew the smoke detector was going off and we were scared the park ranger was going to come and kick us out. So as quickly as we could we put the camp stove on the porch and played innocent while we finished frying eggs outside. Luckily no park ranger came. Thankfully I brought extra cereal because pancakes were going to be a big no go. It was freezing outside!

 

We had a great time. No T.V., no phones, no cell phone coverage. Just us and nature and a heated cabin. PERFECT.

Our surroundings were seriously gorgeous so we didn't mind getting bundled up and going on a couple of hikes to check things out. 

  

Now it gets good:

This is the part where we almost died.

One day we decided to drive about an hour up the mountain to take the kids sledding. It's amazing to me that in just one hour you can go from no snow to mounds of the white stuff. On our way up the mountain Matt's truck lost control on some ice and we found ourselves crossing the center lane of traffic and hitting head on into a guard rail. It was so scary how fast it happened. Though Matt's front fender suffered some pretty hefty damage we all walked away without a scratch. The whole incident was very humbling and we all got a glimpse of how fragile life is. We were speechless after we got out of the truck to assess damage and looked over the guard rail only to see about 200 ft. of straight down and an icy reservoir below. That guard rail saved our lives. Humbling. A nice older man saw the whole thing happen and stopped to help out. Though there wasn't much he could do it was nice to know that somebody cared. There are angels among us. He even offered to follow us up the mountain if we wanted him to. He informed us we were only about a mile from our sledding destination and that if we kept the truck in 4 wheel drive and took it really slow we would be O.K. Matt's truck was still drivable. Not pretty, but drivable. So we offered a sincere prayer of thanks to our Heavenly Father for sparing our lives. We told him we had already come this far and that we wanted to spend a fun day as a family. We then asked Him to help us get safely up the mountain. I am happy to report that we made it. And we were able to spend a fun day sledding. What wonderful family memories!