Vail Getaway

Once upon a time, back in 2003, Bob and I got away for the weekend with Amy and Jason.  Amy and I were both pregnant, me with Jonathan (#4) and her with Jacob.  We went to Amish country in northeastern Ohio and had an absolute ball.  That is where Bob and I ordered our wonderful 10 foot long kitchen table and chairs (although who ever thought we would fill it up?!), and we bought our coffee table and little wooden kids table and chairs.  The lesson we learned from that weekend is that it was a good thing none of us were born Amish, because we all looked rather dorky in Amish hats.  Thankfully, that was before the digital age for us, so no pictures will appear in this blog!  Anyhow, that was the last time Bob and I got away, except for 1 night after Grace was born, when we stayed in a local hotel and then spent the next day looking at dishwashers.  Whee!

But then Bob started working for a new company the end of June.  This company is owned by a wonderful Christian family, and the owner is an extremely generous man.  To celebrate a special anniversary for the company, he paid for all the employees and their spouses to fly out to Colorado and stay in a super-fancy hotel for 5 nights.  Wow!  This was so alien of a concept to us that it really didn't even seem like it would really happen, so I didn't even tell a lot of people about the trip.  But we left Wednesday and flew to Colorado--just the 2 of us!  My parents drove in from Ohio Monday night, and they held down the fort back here with all the kids.

It was heavenly.  We read on the airplane and didn't have to worry about keeping any little person quiet and occupied.  We rented a 4 door sedan, which seemed so small and quiet (also low to the ground and uncomfortable--remind me to not ever buy a Kia--the seat did NOT work for me!), and then we drove off into the mountains to Vail.  The company owner actually provided a bus to take everyone else to the hotel, but we rented a car because we were leaving a day earlier so I could come back and teach Latin, but also because we were going to have a lot of free time, and we wanted to explore!

The hotel (the Arrabelle) was amazing.  Quite a step up from the Comfort Inns we usually stay at!  Our room was huge and so uncluttered.  The staff was so helpful and attentive.  This was the kind of place that turned down the bed each night and left chocolates on the pillow.

Our room was in that corner tower on the 3rd floor.  It looked down into this little courtyard, which even had a skating rink, but I never did get a good picture of that view.

We had this little ipad thing instead of a clock.  When the maids turned down our bed at night, they would turn on the classical/jazz station.  I had to throw a t-shirt over it because it never really went dark, and I could never sleep with a screen lit up beside me!

There was even a TV in the bathroom, not that we ever used it.  The hotel provided big fluffy robes, and we used those to go to the rooftop hot tub Friday night.

The tub was really fancy too, although we never used it.  Had we so desired, we could have paid $50 for the maid to draw us a fancy bath with all sorts of extras.  Ha!  We are definitely not the usual clientele!  I guess this is how the upper .1% live.  Pretty swanky--but easy to get used to being spoiled, LOL.  I still can't believe that the company paid for us to stay there.  It was so relaxing!  

Bob had to go to meetings Thursday and Friday mornings, but the afternoons, plus all day Saturday (and Sunday, although we left that day) were free.  Having all that time that no one needed me and that I didn't really have to be anywhere or have anyone waiting for me was so wonderful.  The whole time was so refreshing to my soul.  

I was not totally enthusiastic about going because it seemed to me that it was too much hassle to actually get there.  When Bob first started talking about it back in July, I couldn't even deal with thinking about it.  As it got closer, I had to do a lot of shuffling to be able to go.  I had to switch a TNT aiding time, so I could teach biology and do lab all on last Tuesday, since I'd be gone on Friday when we normally do lab.  I had to make sure I was ahead in Latin, since we were getting back the night before the next Latin class.  I had to make sure I was ahead on bio too, since I knew I couldn't do everything Monday night after we got back.  And all of us dealt with some kind of cold/fever thing the week before we left, which was stressful.  I was still coughing and snuffly as we flew off.  But boy, oh boy, I had no idea really how nice it all would be.  No idea at all!  When we checked in, we received a new really nice backpack that was filled with stuff--new fleeces for both of us, company polos and t-shirts for both of us, snacks, and other odds and ends with the company logo.  It was amazing!  Then we had an amazing buffet dinner Wednesday night after we arrived (including beef tenderloin and all sorts of delicious desserts), delicious breakfast buffets Thursday and Friday, and another delicious company dinner on Friday.  The food was all so very good.  I can't even imagine how much it all cost!  We missed a really fancy dinner Sunday night at the restaurant on top of the mountain--you ride the gondola to get there.  Honestly, I've never dealt with a gov't contracting company who pampers their employees like that!  No wonder I couldn't imagine how nice it would be!  I am soooo glad I went.  It was so relaxing, which I really needed, and just so much fun.  Plus, I really enjoyed getting to know other people in Bob's company and their wives.  They were all really nice people!  One couple we were surprised to find out are our neighbors!  Bob and I were checking out the rooftop hot tub Thursday night to see if we wanted to go in when we ran into them.  We started chatting, and we found out we both lived in the same town.  Then Tony mentioned the neighborhood they lived in--and it was the same one as us!  We live in a really small neighborhood with only a few streets, so that was a total shocker!  We enjoyed getting to know them, and we sat at the same table with them during the Friday night company dinner too.  We also sat with a couple whose kids are in the elementary co-op with our kids.  Their daughter was in Jonathan's class!  Such a small world.  I really enjoyed the social aspects, which was surprising to me, since I am not as a rule exceptionally social, especially with strangers.  But I guess the family atmosphere and generous attitude of the owner really rubbed off, and everyone was really friendly.  

I'll have to post more later about what we did during our free time, since I'm pretty tired now, and I'm back to reality, including school and Latin tomorrow.  Sigh . . . it's like it all was wonderful dream . . . .