Manton, CA
It was Spring Break last week. No school, no need to wake up early, and the entire family together. Matt took the week off which was awesome. The boys and I were really needing some time all together. It’s pretty cool that we like each other so much. I’m pretty sure that if you asked each of us independently what we wanted to do most, the answer would be to spend time together, as a family.
Well, we had an amazing opportunity over Spring Break to do just that, spend time together as a family. And even more amazing, was that my best friend Maya scored an incredible house for a group of us to spend our vacation together. There were four families which included eight adults and five children.
There is so much to say about this trip that it’s hard to know where to begin. I’ve known these people for years. I knew Shaun, Maya’s husband, first, and introduced him to Maya back in I think 1997 or ’98. I met the rest of the group not long after meeting Maya. Eric and Ericka were with me when I was in the car accident that happened the day after my first date with Matt. Needless to say, we’ve all known each other for a long time. AND, most of us went through Landmark Education courses together which if you know anything about Landmark and The Forum, you know that we know each other on a deep level. We’ve shared parts of ourselves that we don’t like to look at very often, and through all of that, we’ve remained close friends.
So, spending time together this past week, was like spending a week with family. It’s been a pretty incredible experience to get to know each and every person. The good, the bad and the ugly. And still, in the end, we all love each other. And now, our children are growing up together. Life. It’s pretty crazy and amazing.
I do have to mention the house we stayed at. It belongs to a client of Maya’s and they were generous enough to let her trade haircuts for the week at the house. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!! They cleared some space on 10 acres of property in Manton which is just outside of Lassen State Park. They used most of the wood from the clear cutting to build the house and the furniture inside of it. How cool is that?! They have a wrap around porch around the entire home. The kids did laps every once in a while. There’s a large pond stocked with rainbow trout and you can fish as long as it’s catch and release.
The dining table sat 18 comfortably. It had four bedrooms off of the main floor with a small hallway and double door entry for each room. That little hallway made all of the noise of the house disappear so that when you closed your two doors, you didn’t hear a thing that was going on in the house. Excellent for the early mornings! They fully rigged the house with an incredible sound system too. You could play music in the house in two different locations and you could set it up to play outside around the entire house as well. It was the best.
The boys had more fun than they’ve had in a long time. There was such a freedom at this place. They could go outside and run around the entire pond which was pretty big. They got to feel like they were exploring on their own and we knew they were safe because we could see them the entire time. They ran around, caught frogs, well Amelia caught frogs, fished, took walks and just played on the deck. Oh, and you could feed the fish twice a day, which was fun for everyone.
I hope we get to go back. It would be great to make an annual trip to Manton. It did make me want my own summer home though. Somewhere beautiful, with a pond and a horse shoe pit and of course a sound system around the entire house.
Thank you Maya. You knew that it was going to be an incredible vacation and you were right. We love you and thank you for such a great Spring Break!
