Summertime at the Cabin

We just got back from a week-long trip to the LeBaron cabin!  Being away from home for a long period of time is never easy, but I sure do love when we can maximize our stay at the cabin!

Our trip was over Father's Day and we had to take our annual pictures!

We brought up some fun things to keep the kids busy during the week and Gavin wanted to fly a kite, so Grandpa went out to the field with him and got it all set up.

Sunday evening, the men usually head home so they can return to work on Monday.  Derek, Kristin and fam also left Sunday because they were making the trip to Wyoming later that week.  That left me and our kids, Jen and her kids, Melissa & Paityn, grandma and great-grandma!

These two super readers were frequently found in this position, devouring their books!

Jen brought up Otter Pops that were as long as the kids' arms!!!

I won't say that it isn't SLIGHTLY crazy when we get all the cousins together.... ;)

A couple weeks before we left for the cabin, these two BCF (best cousins forever) petitioned for their own room at the cabin.  They even created a speech and presented it in a VERY dramatic fashion.  Some of those reasons included privacy, more space, peace and quiet, not as many sibling fights, etc.  It was very entertaining!

There is a little tiny room, called the attic, above the bunk house, that we decided to allow the girls to stay in.  Let me tell you, they were OVER THE MOON!!!!  Who knows how much sleep they actually got, but I'm sure they had plenty of chats and giggles.  I've said it once and I'll say it a million times, I'm so grateful that these girls were born so close together in our family!

And for the first time ever, we had a "cousin" sleep over while at the cabin!  This is actually their second cousin twice removed (who really knows??), Helen, who is John and Jan's granddaughter.  Our girls spent a LOT of time together.  In fact, Helen and her mom extended their stay because they were having so much fun!  Brooklyn and Emily also spent one night over at their cabin.  Brooklyn came home the next morning and broke the news to me that she had eaten her FIRST POP TART EVER!!

And thank heavens our girls seem to come in groups!  There aren't a lot of them; the boys outnumber the girls 2-1!  There's Sophie, then 18 months later comes Hayden, then 18 months later comes Paityn.  These two aren't quite at the point where they "play" together yet, but Hayden sure was interested in "holding" Paityn.  This morning, they woke up to find out they had worn wearing matching flamingo jammies to bed the night before!

Early morning swinging.  They've come up with some pretty creative ways to ride this thing!

I think a LOT of time was also spent down at the trampoline by the Cummard's cabin!

In fact, those three girl cousins put together and choreographed a whole performance on the trampoline, to which everyone was invited.  We all received these hand-written invitations and were instructed to be down by the trampoline at a certain time for the recital!

They even had audience and sibling participation!!  The kids all did the Cha-Cha slide, Grandma LeBaron gave us a cheerleader chant, Aunt Cheryl did disco, Jen did hip-hop.  It was pretty cute!  I love their creativity at this age!

Brooklyn, Helen and Emily, creators of Bounce Dance Company {BDC}

Blake & Josh kinda stayed hidden through the performance, but played poison ball once the girls were done with all their dance mumbo-jumbo.

And of course, per tradition, we took the kids down to the Pine Store to spend their $1 on a treat!  They won't ever let this go.  They begged and begged and begged and BEGGED every day until we went!

How funny that they brought the same book to the cabin!  Josh was just starting it and Blake finished it.

Clean kids after a bath with Great Grandma LeBaron

Craft time!  Grandma brought something fun for them to color.

Grandma also gave these pom-poms to Hayden~~

The boys built a tent wonderland in the screened porch for their last night. 

Adam & Preston -- two of our 2008 boys

All the cousins

We do crazy really well ;)

And our traditional stair picture before we get in the car to head home.

I was really impressed with how well everyone did this cabin trip!  Once again, Hayden did fabulous with getting to the potty every time and this was the first time she slept at the cabin without a pack n play.  She took naps each day and went to bed each night, sleeping on an air mattress on the floor.  We always have a few little squabbles due to kids (and moms!) being overtired, but being at the cabin with older kids is really becoming an enjoyable thing!  We treasure every minute we get to spend at the Strawberry cabin and hope we can continue making wonderful memories there with our family.