The End of Summer

The end of summer for us is marked officially with a trip to the mountains over Labor Day weekend. For several years, we took our camper & stayed in the great outdoors, at one with nature, including bears-yikes! In fact, every year except this one has included an encounter with a bear, some closer than others.

Last year, we had a tiny newborn & for once I wasn't up to the adventure that is living in a cramped space where everyone trips over each other & you can hear the slightest noise so we rented a cabin...well, this year is de ja vue-we had a tiny newborn & I wasn't up to the adventure...you get the picture. We also decided somewhere in there that hubby has a MUCH better time when he doesn't have the stress of hauling/setting up/maintaining a camper so we sold it to some friends that happened to be in the market.

We love our little cabin-it has great views, a very spacious deck, and plenty of room for the kids to run around & play. It has all the amenities you need on a Labor Day trip-microwave, dishwasher, nice bathroom, & most importantly a TV that gets some college football!

We took walks and naps, played in the rain and in the tall trees, and ate S'Mores...but we also said farewell to Summer, got out our sweatshirts and started looking forward to Fall.


Jack helped make French toast the first morning. Now, I have to stop & tell that we got into our cabin late at night, around 11:00pm...but the kids were so excited to be there that they were up the next morning at 5:30am!! Remember me saying something about the cabin being little? The bedrooms are side-by-side with the bathroom, so EVERYONE was up then-no sleeping in on this vacation!



These are pirates, by the way...pirates that have eaten WAY too much bubble gum! (see big bulging cheeks!)



Our view from the deck.


Ava was all smiles...guess when you are kid #4, you just naturally go with the flow.



The night we planned to have S'mores it was raining, so we made them in the microwave. If you have never put a marshmallow in the microwave, you need to! That is quite a little science experiment! The kids were very impressed. We decided that S'mores are even more messy when cooked this way instead of toasted on the fire!