Weekend at the Cabin

The Banana had been waiting all week for our trip to Papa Richard's cabin.  She knew we were going to be celebrating Auntie Dot's birthday, and each day, several times a day she asked when we were leaving.  Would Auntie Dot share her birthday cake?  Would there be candles?  Would the cake be pink? It turned out that the cake was not pink (big surprise).  It was a German chocolate cake with coconut peacan frosting, made special by Grandma Kathy.  This particular cake is a big favorite in the family. To celebrate Dot's birthday, all the kids had ice cream cones with sprinkles, which was very exciting. 

We had the most eclectic weather during the weekend. The first day was hot, humid, and nearly oppressive.  The next day the rain poured.  The third day started out almost chilly, but the weather turned out to be perfect by midafternoon.  Regardless of the weather, it was certain that unless the rain was coming down in torrents, the kids were in the water.  The water felt so warm compared to last May and compared to Lake Superior.  My kidlets could not get enough of it.  Add in sand to play in, cousins to play with and an enormous collection of floatation devices and the air was filled with the gleeful screeches of children.  They woke up and had their swimming suits on before breakfast, and just wore them all day long.  

I love this picture of Madison.

There was lots of fishing with fishing poles, and fishing with nets.  They'd dump a handful of canned corn down on the bottom of the lake and then try to net the schools of fish that came to nibble. 

Right before we left, Grandma Kathy set up each kid with a plastic bag and ingredients to shake up your own ice cream.  It was a big hit.  The Banana couldn't quite shake it by herself, so Uncle Bryan helped out and they ended up with the greatest ice cream in the bunch, which they shared right out of the plastic bag.  

Jana was a very, very tired puppy from playing with all of those kids.  They are an exhausting bunch.  

We did some kayaking.  We went for a canoe ride.  The kids went on a pontoon ride and some of them (not my kidlets) even did some water tubing.  Dr. Peds cooked up a storm on the grill, the guys sawed through some wood with a chainsaw, some of us read books, and Dot and I even stole away into Perham for a quick trip to the used book store, which is always such an experience. 

Even the car ride home went amazingly smoothly (thank you audiobooks).  When we stopped at a fast food place to feed the kidlets supper since we got a late start leaving, I asked each small person in my family what they liked best about going to the cabin.  Hannah said she liked Auntie Dot's birthday.  Sarah said she liked shaking up her own bag of ice cream, and Noah exclaimed that he really liked roasting the paper plates in the campfire after people ate their lunch.  He loves to stab the plate with a hot dog roasting fork and then set the plate in the fire.  I think it was his favorite thing last time, too.  

It was hard to pick which pictures to share. There were so many.