hold still, my soul

Crystal Crane Hot Springs was… amazeballs. The resort was literally in the middle of nowhere in the high desert of east Oregon. If one had to go food shopping, you’d need to drive 30 miles west… grab some gas there as well. If you didn’t and kept heading east, there would be neither gas stations nor any buildings other than ranches for the next 120 miles. 

high desert of eastern oregon: malheur national wildlife refuge

​It was exactly what we needed. We did absolutely NOTHING for 4 days.  The resort has a man made pond, imagine 2 Olympic sized swimming pools combined, but as a hot tub?? That’s what it was. So rich with minerals, we soaked in the pond daily, few times a day, while outside was freezing (ranging from 28 degrees to 42 degrees). 

first dips into the hot springs

if you were in it, your smiles would be this big as well

at that time, the temperature was 98 degrees inside, 42 degrees outside

oisin couldn't stop putting his head underwater

in his element

​We basically floated through our days there and held still with each other’s presence. Aidan has not expressed homesickness once, Oisin was in his element and Eitan was an eager photographer. 

pc: eitan k

you'd be so warm from the water that the outside temps did not chill you for a good 15 minutes

On day 3, I got antsy and told the boys to let's explore the area. I was told that there was an national park area that had wild mustang herd... Kiger Park, and that it'd be so beautiful. I was given a tourist map and the man circled the specific spot. The map said it'd be around 8 miles and that they would be on dirt road that's "paved."

Fast forward 2 hours later, we were hopelessly lost and it wasn't even 8 miles, but ended up being 120 miles only to discover that the specific road to the herd was impassable for a tiny car like mine. Still, we enjoyed every bit of it. 

not all who wander are lost pc: eitan k

nature wins, always

at an abandoned building in the middle of new princeton, oregon (off of happy valley road, I think)

when we finally found it, 2 hours later, this is what we got.

isn't Note a cute little thing???

we also hung out in Mer to stay warm, we read books, played games, watched movies and cuddled together. We even paid for an hour to access a private room with a huge bathtub full of hot springs' water.

chilling inside as outside was 28 degrees

we did homeschooling at the resort's lodge

that huge tub!

drying up before we go back out in the cold

My favorite part of the entire thing? The 24 hours access we had to the pond, any time of the day, we could go and soak away.

oisin in the pond, 105 degrees as outside was 29

at 9 pm

me alone at 7am (98 degrees inside, 28 outside)

i sat there for almost 2 hours reading a romance novel as i floated, bliss (but omg it made me weak as a newborn babe later in the day), pc: eitan k

We spent our last night hiking the high desert as we watched the sunset (cold!) and then our last morn, we watched the sunrise. We had full access to both views.

a jig for the sunset

eitan as a photographer

proud mommy photographing eitan as a photographer, pc: eitan k

loving my $6 bucks fleeced crocs, pc: eitan k

oisin and aidan fled to mer because it was cold, eitan and i hung out a bit more, pc: timer

last morning's sunrise (view from aidan's bunk bed window)

​We were ready to go because of the nothingness, but we were really sad to leave. I know, deep down in my heart, that that place will be forever remembered by my boys.