girls only cabin road trip

My Parents have a place about 45 minutes further north (and west) of Grand Marais. You take the Arrowhead Trail literally until it ends and then drive over this rickety little one lane bridge (ok it's not rickety but that sounded better) and up and down some more gravel hills (not too fast or your car will bottom out!) and then around the bend until you see the Gordon sign nailed to a tree. Even after that it's a thick wooded driveway until you see the most beautiful backdrop of Boundary Waters Wilderness you can imagine with a log cabin nestled into it all. Well now there's a guest cabin too (the "other cabin" as the girls say and the log cabin is "the real cabin"). It's lovely....and far.....oh so far....nearly six hours of driving, although before we had kids Royce and I could speed up there in five easily.

It helps that one of my best and oldest friends (old as in our relationship, we met at 16, she's the same age as me, careful now) lives in Grand Marais so I get to double up the trip with cabin time and friend time which is a HUGE motivator to make that drive with two year old twins alone! She's worth it - so is the cabin time. We always go up when my parents are there because what would summer cabin time actually be if Grandparents weren't there?! I've been up every year since they bought the place which was the summer I was pregnant. My Dad reminded the girls last week that they had been tubing before they were even born.

We had a good time. It's strange because I spend every day with the girls yet our time together driving up and being there, especially at night, was very precious to me. I gained an even deeper appreciation of them and our relationship being away from home which is kind of ironic I guess. I didn't institute bedtime and we all hog piled together when we got tired and slept. We all work up together too. It worked there. It doesn't work like that at home!

Highlights from our trip for the girls were: running around Papa as he sat in his chair at night screaming and chasing each other while my parents and I laughed and became exhausted from their energy even at the end of the day like that, pontoon boat rides, the boys (Jess's two little ones; Derek and Weston), the beach, swimming, playing with the hose, the large wild rabbit that lives on the walk outside my parents cabin that wasn't afraid of us, going potty on Nana's big potty, Captain Crunch my Dad fed them, Rhino rides (for Rasa), Four Wheeler rides with Nana, Worlds Best Donuts, first experience with Lake Superior, the new cabin, the hammock, wearing the life jacket in the cabin all day long (Adia), "helping" sweep and dusting the entire kitchen with baby wipes, going in and out - in and out - in and out while slamming the screen door every. single. time. and being able to watch endless dvd's in the car when normally their tv time is very limited! Phew I'm tired reliving all of that!

Adia missed Royce something fierce and wanted to come home a few times early but we stayed busy enough to keep her preoccupied. They were so happy to see Royce when we pulled into the driveway that they were screaming and Adia was literally jumping up and down!

The car ride on the way home was more challenging because thanks to our sad state of affairs inside the MN Government and our elected Legislators lack of agreements they shut down and every roadside rest area was barricaded. I'll refrain from giving my real opinion on the matter and just say this: I hope my girls grow to know what is truly important in life and with a heart packed full of humanity and the knowledge that we are all in this together and it is our moral responsibility to take care of each other.

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend filled with little girl excitement and I'll write about that later. Right now it's just nice to be home, back in our rhthym and full of gratitude for what I have been blessed with. My friends Mom told her "these are the best years of your life" and even though they are indeed some of the hardest, they are the best. I will savor every day, that is my promise.

Rasa in the water. She could live there just like her Momma.




Weston giving me a look! I wish I would have gotten some pictures of Derek! He was busy swimming and having fun and I only pulled my camera out for five minutes, literally.




The girls at the beach!






Weston is my friend Jess's 2 year old. He was born 10 days after the girls and Jess and I talked every single week when we were pregnant. Since it was her second pregnancy she taught me a lot and was really a wonderful source of support for me during my high risk pregnancy. I've learned a lot from her over the years and even more now that we share being Mom's together. All of the kids have fun together and the three of the 2 year olds just fit together so well we call them the triplets.




10 miles from my parents place down the Arrowhead Trail


Adia's tiny crocks. I hate Crocks but they remind me of little dutch shoes when she runs around in them with her curls bouncing.


Another one from the trail


Rasa cried when she had to get out. She was so comfortable riding in there and loved it.




This was about 10:30 Friday night. Adia told me it was time for us to go to bed for the first time ever!


The girls bright and early the morning we left.






Adia has a thing for coming up with poses and I have no idea where she gets them from....but to say she's a bit of a show off would be accurate.






These were taken over breakfast the morning we were leaving. Adia was homesick and in the first picture telling me she wanted to go home. She was pretty excited by the third one saying she gets to see Daddy today.






I love this picture of Rasa. She was looking at my Mom in the way she usually does and it's sweet enough to melt my heart.