Wordless Wednesday

Back in civilization

One more wonderful week at the cabin. Should mention though, we had never before spent time there during actual summer. It was HOT and of course there's no a/c in a cabin. Thanks goodness for the beach club, where we spent a lot of time in the water to cool off. Thanks goodness too for decent sunblock because although Zoltan now looks like a total surfer dude with his sunstreaked hair and a bit of sunburn across the bridge of his nose, nobody got any real burn.

We got to snack on red and black raspberries and blackberries from the property! Of course, there were single digit numbers of each of them, but they exist and that's what matters. We also got a few photos of a really funky looking bug. We checked out the Lands at Hillside Farms and ate ice cream from the cows we petted. We got lunch at Grottos for their a/c one particularly miserable day and ate lots of frosty treats. The kids played and fought, laughed and cried, and begged me every day to watch shows. Alex tried and decided she liked couscous, and Zoltan continued his love affair with green veggies (yay!)

As much as I love exotic adventures and cultural excursions, there really is nothing like a week at the CABIN.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Sometimes she's a very good big sister

During a suspense-filled moment in the Land Before Time movie the kids were watching, Zoltan got a little nervous. So he asked Alex to hold him, and she did.

First Ever Shashlik at Harveys Lake

Turns out the kids are total waterbugs and love the beach club. So I guess all that money all those years we never went are totally worth it ;-)

In addition to, you know, beach, the beach club has other useful features: a clubhouse you can rent out for parties, bathrooms, picnic tables and permanent grills and a playground. The grills gave us an idea - pull out the portable shashlik grill we'd gotten in Russia and cook our lunch waterside. It was the inaugural lakeside shashlik but I hope/think it won't be the last.

Hard at work

Working off the lunch

Wordless Wednesday

We love the cabin

I may have said something like this once or twice before. We finally got enough time at the cabin without having to do lots of work that it was relatively relaxed and we got to do the things we love best - wander through our woods ("take a walk up the hill") and get to the beach club at every warm and rain-free enough moment.

The field

Did I mention we have black raspberries? Only enough for each family member to eat about 7-8 berries, but with time and patience and some cuttings, we may eventually make enough for jam.

The kids are waterbugs, now we just need to get them lessons so I am comfortable they know how to swim. Apparently, swim lessons are not the universal means of learning to swim, as evidenced by Terry's very confused expression when I told him I was upset we couldn't get the kids lessons this summer with our here-there-everywhere schedule.

Drying off, ready for lunch and blowing bubbles.

Child Labor

Our first night at the cabin, we had a lot of food prep to accomplish. So the kids pitched in, Alex stemmed grapes and Zoltan shucked peas. Well, he did shuck them but few landed in the bowl for cooking. Alex did a much better job.

Mugging for the camera

 "Taste testing"

Major Milestone Cabin Version

We bought NEW furniture for the cabin, home of cast-offs and thrift-store finds. OK it was only deck furniture because the half-rotted wooden table the place came with is now quite a bit more than half rotted, but it's still a major deal.

Behold. There's no umbrella because we are so thickly shaded with trees that sunlight rarely penetrates the deck.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

UAB have not arrived but I am able to borrow someone's machine right now.  Expect sporadic postings for the near future.

Cabin life is good

Here's some photographic evidence.