Our lives are somewhat insane at the moment which seems to be a reocurring theme in our family, particularly when I am pregnant for some reason. So when we were hanging around doing nothing the first week of summer and my sister Marianne called from the cabin and tried to talk me into driving with my kids up to the cabin to hang out with her and her cute kids for the week I decided why not? So two hours later we were on the road to the cabin. Being seven months pregnant and without the help of my husband made the drive a little annoying but when we arrived it was all worth it! The kids had a great time with their cousins, aunt, nana and papa, and great nana and I was able to escape the stresses of moving/possible job changing and pregnancy.
There is just something about being in the mountains that I loved as a child that brings me so much peace and helps me to feel so close to my Father in Heaven. When we arrived at the cabin my kids and I just sat by the back river and as they threw rocks I just looked at the beautiful earth that God created for me and felt like everything was going to be okay. There is no other place on earth where I feel so at peace than at the cabin.
We went on a hike up to, as we call it, "Aspen Grove" and had a little FHE on the importance and symbolism of mountains in the scriptures. It was really neat to talk about that while surrounded by the beautiful mountains.
Beckett was a big fan of his walking stick he found along the way!
This is Aspen Grove. It is so beautiful and the trees just surround you and stretch up to the sky.
Another day we floated through the culvert. Carter and Nathan and Aria were loving it, but Rylynn was a bit hesitant to try. She was gathering her courage and right before she decided to give it a try the intertube popped and the fun was over.
Nana tried to find anything else that would work even resorting to a storage bin, but it was no use. We are determined to find some hard plastic bottomed boats for next summer as this seems to happen to us every year.
These two cute girls had so much fun playing all week long. They are such great buddies and I wish we lived closer!
This year the new attraction was a zipline that one of the neighboring cabins put in. The kids loved it! I was a little worried that it was too fast for Beckett and that he would fly off so I would run along side holding the rope about half way down and then let him go. Let me tell you it was an awesome sight seeing me and my giant belly hobble along down the hill:) After a couple days he would freak out if I ran along with him because he is determined to be one of the big kids these days. Luckily he held on really tight and never flew off.
Rylynn and Carter had no fear of course and were pulling all sorts of tricks while riding. I'm so glad no one fell off or got hurt.
We got to have Abby and Matt and Ollie come up and visit us a couple times while we were there. The kids had a great time with Uncle Matt! After they left Rylynn came up to me and said, "Mom, uncle Matt is going to be a really good Dad someday. He is a lot of fun!" I thought that was so sweet. The kids really loved playing with him at the children's pond and building a bridge to their island.
Beckett loved getting to know great Nana's new little dog Lucy. He was so gentle and sweet with her and Lucy just loved him. One afternoon we found Beckett in her kennel just hanging out. I think he was trying to see how it felt so he could relate to his new little friend:)
The day we left to drive back home Nana and Papa spoiled us and took us to Lagoon! The kids had a blast and it wore them out for the first leg of the drive.
It was really hot that day which meant that everybody else was at lagoonabeach so the lines weren't long. We had lots of ice cream breaks to keep us cool and one of the kids favorite things of the day was to use Nana's water spray bottle to cool themselves off. It was a brilliant idea to bring that thing along!
Beckett was a big fan of the little tyke rides but not such a big fan of anything that went too fast or dropped. Hmm I wonder why:) I had a total "worst mom ever moment" when I sent him with Papa on a ride that drops about thirty feet. I wasn't even thinking about the fact that he had fallen out of a third story window the summer before and is consequently terrified of heights and the feeling of falling. Rylynn and Carter loved that ride last year and I was just excited that this year Beckett was big enough to ride it too. So as he and Carter and my Dad were climbing up on the ride I had a panic attack and realized what I had just done to my baby. I turned to my Mom and said what was I thinking?!! Then she realized it too but by then it was too late to get him off. Needless to say he hated the ride and was pretty much terrified to go on any rides for the next several minutes. So when we found the tiny tug boats that go 1 mph he was a big fan:) Unfortunately, Rylynn was too tall for the boats so she had to watch and cheer for her brothers.
Beck also loved the train ride through the "zoo". He was very excited to see all the animals but he was a little dissapointed that there was no crocodile. He's a bit obsessed with crocodiles at the moment.
We had a great trip with people we love and it was a great escape from reality for me. Now if we can just figure out where to live and when to move before I go into labor in six weeks!!!
