The Cabin

As you will notice with my new picture of the week, the cabin truly is my favorite place on earth.

This cabin was built by my grandpa's bare hands when my mom was a little girl. She always tells us stories of how he would let her help hammer in the nails and he was so particular about building every inch correctly. My grandpa was an architect and as a child I remember thinking he could build or fix anything with a hammer and nails. When I was really little my parents had to move a lot but no matter where we lived, every summer we would drive out and spend a couple weeks at the cabin. It is high up in the Uinta mountains in Utah, you have to drive up a ten mile dirt road to get there, and the water is from the river so you can't drink it. It is a little rustic, but the most beautiful place on earth. I have so many memories as a child of wandering around our property and the woods surrounding it and coming face to face with deer and moose. I loved fishing in the ponds, tubing down the river, and picking wild flower bouquets for my mom. But most of all I just loved being there surrounded by the beauties of the earth and feeling close to my Father in Heaven who created it all for me. Something about this amazing place just makes me feel like Heaven is so close. I am so grateful that now I get to bring my children to this wonderful place each summer and watch as they experience the wonders of discovering it for themselves. I took the kids there last week and had a blast. It is run-off right now (when the snow all melts from the mountains and comes down the rivers) so the river is raging. That made me very nervous with Carter around since there is a river that goes right in front of the cabin and one that goes right in back. I have never seen the river as wide or as deep as this year. So of course Carter has no fear and his favorite activity was to throw rocks in the river from the little bridge in front. Every time he would throw a rock into the river he would say Booyah! (he was taught this little phrase by his father in case you were wondering) This made me so nervous because he would find the biggest rocks his little hands could carry and jump as he threw them off the bridge. So one morning around 8am, I took Carter outside and was sitting on the porch with my mom when he fell into the raging river. It was freezing so he started to scream immediately. I jumped in the river at the bottom of the bridge because I was worried he would be dragged under the bridge and get stuck there. My mom ran to the top of the bridge where he had fallen in and all she saw was these tiny white fingers holding on for dear life. So she grabbed in the river and got him out before he could lose his grip and fall under the bridge. We both nearly had heart attacks, but we were so grateful he was alive. All my mom kept saying was, "this baby is so strong!!", "you are so lucky he is so strong!" I reached into the river just to see how strong the current was and I was amazed that he had held on as long as he did. So that was a little traumatic, but the rest of the week was spent spotting wildlife, making mud pies by the pond, having snacks in the tree house that Nana built, and roasting marshmallows by the fire pit. Daddy helped chop down some trees and we all helped cut fire wood and haul it to the wood shed. Rylynn loved this part and praised us for our Teamwork! Another amazing thing about the cabin is the stars at night. You can see the entire milky way and the stars are just endless. Another great story from the week was when Carter was taking a nap, we spotted a huge mother moose and her tiny new baby cross right in front of our property and we followed them around to the back river. We were so nervous that the little baby wouldn't make it across, but they both made it safely to the other side. We just love this place and feel so lucky to have it!


Here I am teaching Rylynn the traditional art of mudpie making!

Daddy and Carter scouting out rocks to throw in the river

Rylynn working very hard on her mudpie

A family snack in the tree house

Carter precariously close to the edge!

Did I mention that we get dirty at the cabin?

The back white river rapids

Nana working hard with the chainsaw!