Except because I wasn't paying attention I started to feel...a little sideways. And my horse kept stopping and blowing her lips (I don't know what they call that) and I had fallen behind. Of course I was last. Chance again got the better spot of the middle (joking honey!
It actually benefited me more being in the back because every time the horse stepped on snow that didn't have anything underneath it, I'd see Chance tense up, hold on for dear life, and gasp as he sunk on one side. I totally didn't do that...). So I hollered ahead "uh, honey!" And they both look back. My guide realizes I'm not a good listener (totally not true, I was just preoccupied with trying to click stuff on my iPod with my nose) and didn't pay attention when she said "make sure your saddle is in the middle at all times". So she shouts back "you have to fix your saddle!" Yeah, but how? I didn't say this because I figured it out. I had to lean to the right and put force down in the stirrup and wa-la. I learned then that my weak side is my right side. So for the rest of the ride I had to put force on that side’s stirrup. After a few minutes of being on the trail we seen some moose but they were so far away behind a bunch of trees that I thought to myself, if these are the only ones we see I'm going to be upset. And of course because it's the changing of the seasons, the moose have lost their antlers making them harder to see. We ride for what seemed like forever then the guide decided we should turn around and head back for lunch. Here’s the problem, remember the guide is in front, then Chance, then me. We're on a narrow path so you can't just go in a circle to turn around AND again our guide was on a trainee horse. So in order for us to turn around, our guide who was already off her horse because it didn't want to sit still while we were watching moose, had to walk her horse on the narrow path past Chance then me. Got past Chance fine but got too close to me and smashed my leg between her horse and mine. It hurt just a little. It was a small price to pay to get to be in the middle...joking. But yes I now was in the middle and Chance got to witness my awesome horse riding skills, where I didn't flinch a bit when my horse sunk in the snow…
Just a little bit into the ride back, moose began to pop up everywhere. We seen some laying down at first and I thought, "man I just want to holler and spook them so they'll stand up" but then I thought about if they started to charge us and decided it wasn't a good idea. Not that moose are aggressive according to our guide, but with babies they can be and this one had a baby with it. Next we came upon a few areas with "packs" (4-5) of them. One was standing on our trail as we approached and of course took off after we got close.
We finally get back to the stable and my bum is already hurting a bit and I must make a confession...I was scared the whole ride! I mean come on, a horse has a mind of its own and you never know when it's going to go crazy. So I was a bit relieved that we made it out alive. But our guide had a different plan. Instead of going straight up to the stable, she took us on a detour to a track where they run with the horses and she wanted us to find the horses trot and canter (smoother than a trot; not as bouncy). We went a few laps and surprisingly I could tell the difference when my horse would trot and canter. Except I was just ready to get off this thing to be honest. Finally she says we're going up to the stable to eat lunch and my heart almost burst with excitement. Besides the guides horse having a conniption fit over a puddle of water, we get to the stable and she tells us to stretch our legs out forward before getting off the horses because we'd probably be stiff. Probably? Holy moly! We stretch, all is well...Chance hops off his horse and me, finally being relieved that everything went well and again we didn't die, I swing my leg over to get off the horse. Another confession, while swinging my leg over, I put my other foot back in the stirrup to keep my balance. But I guess you're not supposed to do this. Remember were in our snow gear. Which means snow boots. And if you're mind hasn't taken you there yet...my boot got stuck in the stirrup. The rest of my body was off the horse. So as I tried to catch my balance I fell then tried to jerk my foot out the stirrup (all the while Chance was cracking up...and I was on the verge of it except I was mad because I was now covered in mud..yes, I'm going to say it's mud). What happened next, neither of us ever seen coming. The horse took off! My boot still in the stirrup therefore my body being drug alongside the horse. I would assume I spooked the horse when I tried to jerk my boot out of the stirrup. And all I could pray is "oh God, don't let me go up under those hooves!!" And then I eventually just closed my eyes waiting either to die or be severely injured. Well as you can see since I'm writing this, I didn't die, PRAISE THE LORD! My boot finally fell out of the stirrup and the horse kept running. Chance ran to my side and helped me up. I was hurting…bad. I felt like I was going to throw up. But of all things hurting, my thumb hurt the worst. I was covered in mud, I couldn't talk, I was so cold, and couldn't walk for the first few minutes because I guess I was in shock somewhat. I was bent over, holding my upper body up on my knees. The guide came up running and shouting things to the other people in the stable. She then asked me if I was okay, if I needed an ambulance, or them to take me to the hospital but I couldn't talk. So she assumed she should call the ambulance. Finally I was able to say no, that I just needed to sit down and get somewhere warm. But first I needed a bathroom, I was about to get sick. I was in so much pain and my thumb hurt really badly. I was shaking all over. I decided maybe I should go to the hospital. Chance tells her I wanted to go and I was in the bathroom dry heaving, then changed my mind again about the hospital because as bad as this sounds...I didn't want to miss the snowmobiling excursion we had booked for that night. I decided I just wanted to go back to our room and lay down. So Chance goes and tells her I don't want to go to the hospital. She comes in and asks am I sure, or if we wanted to stay for lunch. The nausea was going away so I decided we could stay for lunch. Did I mention it was 20-30 feet I was drug? Doesn't sound far but even one foot drug by a horse is one foot too many. I remember thinking after getting to the bathroom Chance could've been going home without me, to our kids without their mother. Talk about gut wrenching. We were praising and thanking our God for his amazing protection!
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| One of the small bruises I escaped with. |
And also thankfully my iPod survived the drag with me (I had the strap around my wrist so it was dangling), so I at least have proof I got to see the moose, lol. It was covered in mud but I had a case on it. We go into the kitchen, where I strip off my snow suit and boots that were covered in mud, I'm still cold, shaking and in a lot of pain...but it was getting better. The main parts that hurt were my elbows, right side of my hip and my right thumb. I could move my thumb though so I knew it wasn't broke. I thank God I was wearing a helmet because I could only imagine what else could've hurt. I get settled down, it's nice and warm. Chance steps outside to smoke and while he's gone the guide serves the appetizer, which is broccoli soup with that bread I talked about before (looks like a pizza crust). I immediately began eating. I didn't wait for either of them. I was cold. Chance comes back in and asks what we were having to which she replies broccoli soup and I piped up, "oh and it's good, I've already started...sorry". They both laughed then sat down where Chance and I started to pray. I looked up to her, she was confused, and said "we pray over our meals, you can pray too". She says yes and bows her head then when we finished and said Amen, I'm not sure she knew that was the end until we began eating so she did too. Again, neither me nor Chance eat broccoli, but this soup was delicious!! But again, it could've been because we were so cold and just wanted anything warm. We finished up our soup and then she serves the entree which was smoked reindeer with whole baby potatoes and mixed vegetables. The reindeer tasted like bacon so that right there tells you it was delicious! For dessert she offered some muffin looking cakes but I declined because I was stuffed full. Chance had one though and said they were good. Then she put on a slideshow of pictures of their farm all through the year. It definitely puts "visiting Sweden during the summer" on our bucket list. Then the guy who picked us up from the hotel that morning walked in and asked how it went. That's when we told him about the incident. He didn't seem too concerned since I didn't look hurt. But he asked if I was okay. After she got everything cleaned up, she asked if we were ready to go and I was. I wanted to go lay down. So she took us back to the resort. On the way this time, I stayed awake and we seen a beautiful red fox. We get back and because today was our last full day there, we went and got our souvenirs from the gift shop then went back to the room.
Do you know what the feeling of relief is? Let me explain. We've been wearing wool socks for the last two days on our excursions. Do you know how itchy wool is? First thing I'd do every time we got in from an excursion was pull those babies off and scratch my legs until they were raw. I didn't even worry about cleaning my snow gear off after we got in, I just hopped in bed to rest. I was still hurting and starting to get sore all over. It didn't matter though. I was still going snowmobiling! So we nap for a few hours then get up at about 7pm to get ready. I still had to clean my snow suit and at first wasn't going to because the resort lends you snow suits for any excursion you've booked through them, but decided I'd just wipe off the dirt with a wash cloth and call it good. Our last excursion was an aurora lights chasing event on snowmobiles with supper included from 8pm-12am. We hadn't seen them yet and we're hoping since it was clear skies, we just might tonight. We go to the dressing room and get our jihad mask (that's what Chance calls them, there's a proper name but it's the things that cover your nose and mouth) and decided to use their mittens (the same ones I used the first night to keep my iPod from freezing) in hopes they'd keep our hands from getting cold (ours worked fine but we wanted to see if theirs was somehow better).
We asked if for any reason we should wear their snow suits but she said the only reason they recommend it is because you usually come back smelling like gas. Ha, I already smelled like horse so gas wouldn't be any worse. We also asked about goggles but they said the snowmobiles had high shields on the front so we didn't need them. I don't know if they know, but it's a sin to lie. Our eye balls nearly froze. We totally needed goggles. Jumping ahead of myself, we go out to the meeting point and quickly realized this excursion would be different from all the rest...we weren't alone. There were 13 people all together plus the guide. I know I'll be judged for saying this but that wasn't the only thing we noticed…there were old farts on this trip. Yes, old people. I want to go fast! Boooo! Our tour guide meets us, does roll call, and then we go back in the dressing room to get helmets. We then walk to the snowmobiles where she goes over safety stuff like the speed limit is 70 km (I'm pretty sure that's like 35-45 in mph), not to gun it or we'll flip off, don't pass her and stay in a line since there were so many of us, keep a safe distance because the most thing damaged is the front and we'd have to pay for it, the hand signs for stop and slow down, and that the snowmobiles have smart skies underneath that will follow the tracks that are already made (meaning you didn't really have to steer it hard). We then got on the snowmobiles. I got us the middle one. Yes, there were two people per snowmobile. We decided that I was going to drive first since it was still day light and then Chance would drive in the night so I could control the camera in case we seen the auroras.
These snowmobiles had nifty heated handle bars for the driver and for the back passengers. We get situated, as does everyone else, and then ride out. It was pretty awesome! We went through a little dip on the lake that was starting to thaw so there was standing water. After finally getting a feel for this, we begin to slow down and then...stop. I see the guide up front standup and turn to see the rest of the crew that was supposed to be behind me. Keyword: supposed to. You remember those old farts I mentioned? Yeah they were on the snowmobile behind us and were possibly going 2 km…joking but they were far behind, like a quarter of a mile. So while we're waiting I jump off and get pictures of Chance and I on the snowmobile, which seemed to become a chain reaction because everyone (that was in front of us) began asking the guide to snap pictures for them.
The others finally caught up and the guide decided to move the old farts from behind us to the second snowmobile right behind her. You all know what that means...yeah, we didn't get over 30km the entire ride and the speed limit was 70km! So we get going again, and after 10-15 minutes we stopped again to talk about the aurora lights and what they really are.
Here’s a synopsis: The sun shoots off electricity. Some of the electricity slips through earth’s magnetic field, which is usually pretty strong but weaker where both poles are. The electricity collides with different gases and depending on which gas depends on the color you see; could be white, gray, yellow, green, pink, and blue. Except our guide didn't just say that, she done an amazing demonstration in the snow. She pounded two holes representing the earth and sun then reached in the suns hole and began throwing "electricity" (snow) out. After this we got back on the snowmobiles and we switched drivers so Chance was now driving. We went through some wooded areas with bumps (thankfully these things had shocks) then came to a big open area with little hills around and our guide again stopped us. She asked who has seen the movie Frozen. Being probably the only Disney freak with a young daughter I said "yoo-hoo!" (get it…Oaken?) They all kind of giggled and then she went on to say that they possibly could have gotten the scene where the trolls live, from the very spot we were standing (although I just researched and found that the homage of the films setting is Norway). An artist who lived in Sweden had made a sketch of the area and the guide thinks that the illustrator from Frozen got ahold of it and used it. Don't know if it's true, but it's still pretty neat to think about, and it actually all matched up.
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| This is the area of "Frozen" |
We get back on the snowmobiles, Chance still driving, and proceed to the cabin where we'd have supper. I should probably say it was nearly 10pm when we reached the cabin. It was about a 20-30 minute straight ride to the cabin, so instead of just sitting silent in the back I began to sing. See today wasn't just a day full of fun activities. My mind had been wandering else where all day. Because 8 years ago, on April 8th, 2007 I watched my mother take her last breath from fighting cancer. A day forever engraved in my mind. A day that, 8 years later, I almost lost my life too. That too went through my mind shortly after being drug by the horse. How would my family have dealt with this day in the future? I'm telling you, I'm still to this day giving God all the glory and praise for this day. So instead of singing any ole song, I began to sing mine and my mom’s song that we would get up in church and sing together.."When Nothing But A Miracle Will Do". "When you've tried everything, and everything you've tried has failed, you’re standing at the harbor where the ship of hope has sailed, your friends have no answers and peace just can't be found, oh but there's a hand of mercy who can turn it all around; when nothing but a miracle will do, there's nothing that the hand of God cannot bring you, I know he's more than able and he will deliver you, when nothing but a miracle will do". I never knew how much this song would mean to me. And as I sang it, it was like we were back up on stage together and I could still hear her voice. I would say I got teary eyed but the wind was so fierce it'd been more like ice drops falling from my eyes (you got to have some kind of humor in it, right?). So we get to the cabin and Chance asked something about what I was doing, I can't remember exactly what he asked but something like did you get lots of pictures or were you bored...I don't know. But I know my reply was "nope, I was singing". To get to the cabin you have to walk up a big steep, snow covered, slippery hill. Thankfully we all made it up okay but it turned into a slide going back down. We get in the cabin, were its all warm and toasty.
There's no electricity again so it's lit by candles. Our appetizer was already waiting for us. It was a reindeer wrap on a tortilla shell with hot ligonberry juice. It was alright but let's just say, I didn't eat it all. I ate the most of it because I was just really hungry and hadn’t prepared myself to be waiting to eat until 10pm. I want to say she'd already made a trip to the cabin before the excursion started because she just had to warm our entree up which was reindeer goulash (with a dollop of sour cream in it, if you preferred). It was similar to beef stew just reindeer instead. Again I don't eat beef stew but that stuff was delicious!
We had all been talking and asking each other where we were all from. One guy said he was from America and I piped up, us too. He immediately asked, oh from Ohio? I thought, now my accent isn't that bad anymore! But I said no, just south of that…Kentucky. Then I told them how we’re military stationed in Italy and whatnot. Come to find out, this guy was there with his Swedish girlfriend (and her family) who had went on an exchange student program and fell in love with this guy. So she was showing him some of her country. One of the other older ladies (who rode with our guide because she was alone and didn't want to drive on her own) said this was part of her bucket list. She told some funny stories and she had a British accent that made the stories funnier (she was really upset on the Icehotel tour we had done the day before that the Icebar was shut down). For dessert there was some kind of blueberry spiced pie but again I was full and I'm really not a fan of blueberries unless it's muffins. While inside the cabin our guide would go outside every few minutes to check if the auroras were out and after eating she said she thought she faintly seen them but her eyes might be playing tricks on her. I don't think anyone heard that last part because we all ran outside like a stampede only to see a night sky with a bunch of stars. Nope, no auroras. I even snapped pictures of the sky just in case our eyes couldn’t see them but the camera could because they say that happens a lot. But still nothing. Chance decided to go potty and again there was another pee tree plus an outhouse. Apparently the same woman who was there on her bucket list mission got stuck in the outhouse because as we were all standing outside waiting to get back on the snowmobiles we hear "can someone please come help me!" She was assisted and made it out okay. It was only a 20 minute straight shot ride back to the resort (with me driving since Chance done most of the driving there) so the guide came up to us and said, you can get out of line now and go as fast as you want, just don't pass me. WOO HOO! It's go time baby! We were the first to get out of line and got right behind her. We were going over 70km. But then our smart skies that aren't that smart kept going into old tracks that were like ruts so I felt like I was starting to lose control. We slowed down but not by much. I didn't want to push my luck after already being drug by a horse. The guy that was there with his Swedish girlfriend had the same idea as us and ended up passing us. Of course we get back to the resort and we look back and the 4 other snowmobiles were faintly in the distance. Slowly 3 of them showed up but then there were the old farts. Still way behind. So our guide went to go "get them". We get our snowmobiles parked and walked back up to the dressing room to return our gear. We then had to hurry up and go up to the main reception to check out for the next day since our flight left super early and to receive our diplomas for staying in and surviving the Icehotel.
Yes, a diploma. We got back to our room, recapping our adventure and while no we didn't see the northern Aurora lights, we still got to do so many fun things that most people never get to! So my advice when going on a trip like this is if you go solely to the see the northern lights, book excursions to make it worthwhile in case you don't see them. They're unpredictable. So we showered and finally crawled into bed around 2am.
Day 4 April 9th, 2015:
Our sleep was short lived because we had to be up at 4am. Our shuttle to the airport left at 4:45am and our plane left at 6:05am. But that was okay because being that it was only me and Chance and being that this was probably something we'd hardly ever do, we decided to get first class tickets on our way back which was supposed to include sleeper seats. You caught that didn't you...supposed to. More on that in a minute. So we get ready, (I’m extremely sore on my right hip, my elbows, and my thumb still) finished packing and go to the dressing room to get our "breakfast bags" (had some kind of meat and cheese rolls with fruit and a drink). Then we get in our shuttle and head to the airport. See Chance got orange juice that wasn't that great in his bag and I had water. I aggravated him about how he wished he had my bag and then not even reading the label took a big swig of the water. Oh no! Where's the bottle?! I spit it right back out. Yep, it was sparkling water not Aqua natural. Chance laughed. We get to airport and go to check in on the monitors and realize there's no "separate area" for the first class sleeper seats. It was just a bunch of regular seats. Well we still had to take our bags up to the front desk so I'd ask them then. We get up there and I ask "we are getting sleeper seats right? I booked us first class tickets and on your site for SAS Business Flex Plus it says you get a sleeper seat. I done this because I knew we wouldn't get much sleep last night and we intended to sleep on our flights." The lady, very confused, looked at me and said "sorry ma'am, but there are no sleeper seats on this flight." I said "then why did I pay [this much] extra for first class?! We only wanted sleeper seats!" She said "well you'll get meals for free on this flight and all the snacks and drinks are also free". I wanted to scream "BUT I DONT CARE! I WANT MY SLEEPER SEAT!" Me without sleep equals no Bueno. I then asked where I could complain to and what number I could call to get my money back. Very angry, we make it through security and I'm a miss pouty pant who doesn’t care whose watching. I get online on the airlines website and filed out a complaint report then I re-looked up the difference between the different classes they offer. I'm pretty sure I found where everything got messed up. Only on international flights can you get sleeper seats. But on short distance flights they offer you the SAS Business Flex Plus when you're only really getting SAS Plus (which includes the meals, food, and drinks). So you're still getting something more than the economy class just not sleeper seats. So at first I was like "alright, you want to play this game? I'll start ordering one of everything and just start passing it out to people on the plane or taking one bite/sip and say I don't want it" but then figured we probably wouldn't get the difference back for the tickets so I told Chance not to take anything they offered and we didn't. Not the first flight at least. The second and third flight we decided that even if we got the difference back for the Business Flex Plus class and the Plus class, we'd still be paying for the food and drinks so we might as well get something. This time we were only traveling for a total of 9 hours (70% of which I slept) with the same layovers as when we came (Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark). On our last layover in Copenhagen we got the kids some toys (saying we were elated to see them was an understatement!!). This was the first time we'd been away from Marcus and all 3 of them at the same time for the longest amount of time. That is what also kept us leveled headed about our non-sleeper seats...at the end of the day, we're getting our kids back! That was enough to counter act the bad! So we finally get back to Venice and then back to base to get the kids. Gracie and Gavin were so excited to see us and even though we were only gone for 4 days it seemed like Gavin, in particular, matured so much! Marcus on the hand was asleep and even when he did wake, what I thought would be a glorious reunion turned out to be an attack. He was mad at me for leaving him. He cried and smacked at me to go away. Broke my heart into pieces. But after a few hours he was back to his loving self!
We got home, rested up that night then the next day...headed off to Legoland in Germany for 3 nights 4 days! Yes, this was in an attempt to make up for being gone the first half of the week, plus we didn't want Gracie's spring break to be all about us. I won't blog every.single.detail about that trip but I will say it was fantastic family time! We rode every ride the kids possibly could which was all but maybe 3. We stayed in one of their Lego themed cottages which was Indiana Jones on the inside. It was a two bedroom cottage with a bathroom, refrigerator, and a box of Legos! Conveniently it was just a 10 minute walk through a forest to the park (there was a paved path). Oh and a praise report is the first day we went to the park (Saturday) it was cloudy with a few sprinkles and just cold. As we were walking back to the park after having lunch we were all complaining so I told Gracie that we could pray about it and God could change the weather for us. So we prayed that the sun would come out and warm us up a little and folks within 3 minutes of saying the prayer, the sun appeared and we were able to enjoy the rest of our day! I looked at Gracie and said "THAT'S the amazing God we serve!!" And after we got back to our cottage when the park closed, guess what? It started pouring!! Ha, take that devil!!
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| A neat souvenir we had made at LegoLand to bring back a memory of our Italian license plate. |
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| I love the smile on Chance's face as he's looking at Gracie! |
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| Inside our Indian Jones themed room |
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| We were in 61 |
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| They have these nifty dryers for water rides so you don't walk around wet |
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| Now imagine...10 more years... |
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| My favorite picture of them!! |
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| Knocked out! |
If you've made it to the end of this post, I hope you feel like you were right alongside us on our journey just...virtually. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Main point: if you get the opportunity, travel the world and see Gods amazing creation! We've decided that instead of lots of pointless toys we are going to start doing trips for gifts! Those will be precious memories we will cherish forever!
