Seven Kids, One Snowed-In Cabin: Mona's Idea of Luxury

Hi, friends! A lonely cabin in the snow, limited electricity, a fireplace for heat. That's where Mona (38), her husband Freddy (41), and their kids Sina (17), Alina (16), Maik (14), Dario (11), Melina (7), Amy (4), and Tamira (2) are spending their vacation before the family grows again in March (we did an interview about baby no. 9 here). Plenty of people might miss their creature comforts in a cabin like this, but for Mona's family, this is the real luxury. Here's what she told us.

Dear Mona, you're squeezing in one more trip before the baby comes in March. Who's along, and where are you?

Yes, we're back in Switzerland, in beautiful Graubünden. The little cabin sits right in the middle of the snow. There's a ski area nearby, an ice trail for skating, and a sledding run, so everybody gets something out of it!

We have seven kids with us, so nine people in total. Our oldest wanted to stay home, take care of the animals, and get herself mentally ready for her new job. Not long after we get back, she'll be leaving for several months.

The cabin isn't exactly classic luxury. You have to make your own fire and haul your own water. Why did you choose it?

You're right, you won't find classic luxury in this cabin. But it wins you over in a lot of other ways: the quiet, the view, and the feeling that you experience life so much more intensely.

We stayed here once before, two years ago, when our youngest was still a baby, and we loved how slow everything felt. When we talked about where to go this time, everybody quickly agreed we wanted to come back to this cabin.

What do you think the kids learn from the cabin and the surroundings?

Here we live pretty much the way people did 100 years ago. The kids learn how little you actually need in life to be happy. No screens, limited power from a small solar system, baking bread together once we've gotten the fire going. They learn that you have to keep feeding the fire regularly so the mountain cabin stays warm.

We move closer together as a family and have fun in the snow, sledding or having snowball fights. We make raclette with Swiss cheese and delicious meat straight from the farm (the family that owns the cabin runs it). The kids discover how nice it is to just watch the snow fall with a hot cup of tea or cocoa.

We wake up with the first rays of sun, and every day the kids can go straight out into the snow. They only come in for a quick bite or a drink, and they spend the rest of the day playing outside. The highlight, of course, is when we fire up the hot tub and they can relax in the warm water.

Would a classic all-inclusive hotel vacation appeal to you too?

An all-inclusive hotel vacation is great too, of course, and so are kids' resorts, because there's so much for the kids to do. That's exactly why we're planning a trip to Disneyland Paris soon, with one to three days at an all-inclusive hotel right at the Disneyland entrance. There'd be something for everyone: the little ones can go to the park, and the older ones could head into Paris.

It's not clear yet whether we'll manage it before the birth, especially since it's a longer drive. Maybe it'll end up being an amusement park in Germany instead. We'll see once we're back from this trip.

When do you start packing for a trip like this, and how does it go?

For this winter trip, I started packing two weeks ahead. I bought new shoes and winter clothes for the kids who had outgrown theirs. Then came the try-on session: ski pants and jackets, gloves, hats, winter boots.

I pack for my husband, the youngest kids, and myself. The rest of the kids pack their own suitcases. Afterward, we parents look everything over, pull out the summery sparkly dresses, and add a warm sweater or two, or throw in more socks and underwear 🙂

What can never be missing from your suitcases?

For this winter trip, we need enough heavy winter clothing for every single day, because we can't do laundry there. Then swimsuits for the hot tub, and we'd better not forget the favorite stuffed animals, or it's major drama with the little ones. Toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and small stuff like nail scissors or spices that you won't find in the cabin.

It takes quite a bit of planning ahead, but in an emergency we can always go shopping on vacation if we forget something really important. Some basic groceries come with the cabin, so we don't have to bring quite as much.

Do you have a funny or wild story from a big-family vacation? 

As a big family, we've definitely had some funny moments. In Spain, the waves were pretty rough and we had some really big pool floats for the kids. Alina noticed a little too late that her giant flamingo was drifting out toward open water. The lifeguards brought it back to us by boat, and it was a pretty hilarious sight when they towed the flamingo in.

Then there was the time we had a blowout in the RV in the middle of a Spanish highway, which was really scary. We had to wait three hours while the trucks barreled past at full speed, and we stood far back behind the guardrail.

On a beach in Spain, we once discovered a cave you could only get into by boat. So we bought two inflatable rafts and explored it. It felt like a pirate treasure hunt. It was a little adventurous, sure, but the kids thought it was the most exciting thing ever.

A lot of parents find vacations with kids more exhausting than everyday life at home. How is it for you?

We don't find the vacation itself exhausting at all. The prep is what wears you out: the planning in your head, all the shopping beforehand, packing the suitcases, and the often very long drive. Especially when you're stuck in traffic or the weather doesn't cooperate and the kids can't really play at the playgrounds because it's pouring or storming, and so on…

But once the drive is done and the vacation starts, it's relaxed. We enjoy family life and the outings. The kids are super relaxed and well occupied at the beach, in the ocean, in the pool, or in the snow, depending on where we go. It's even easier with the RV. We have a built-in TV with a DVD player for when the weather is really bad.

Where would you love to take the whole family someday?

Our absolute dream vacation would be a trip to the Maldives or Bali, the Seychelles or Fiji. Or a cruise on a really big ship, with amusement parks, water parks, and all that. In winter, we'd love to go to Lapland or to Norway or Sweden someday.

And where would you go if you had two days all to yourself?

I wouldn't want to travel alone. I went to Brussels once with a friend, and it was lovely, but something was missing. When something wonderful happens, I just want my family around me so I can share it with them.

What I could imagine, though, is a short trip with my oldest daughters to an Italian city. But only if the rest of the family didn't feel like coming along, which will probably never happen 🙂