Cabin Day Two

We slept iffy that first night. It's always hard in a new place, new sounds, smaller beds, different everything . . . and a couple of noisy guinea pigs at our feet. The oft-used bathroom door had a never-ending squeal (that we fixed with cooking spray as soon as the sun came up), and I'm told the downstairs was somewhat arctic given the previous inhabitants' a/c settings.

Buck was so excited to get going into the woods, that he woke up several times. He said at 1:30 a.m. he popped up and thought he'd overslept--I seriously cannot imagine ever thinking this at 1:30 in the morning :) By the time the real alarm went off at 4:30 a.m., Buck was up, dressed, making coffee, and getting ready to wake the other sleeping hunters. Caelan, Gabby, my dad, my brother, and Buck set out that first morning. It was a little hard to go back to sleep because there are no doors to the upstairs, it's all just an open loft-type situation. My boys, barely moved. They must have been out like lights!

Shortly after the hunters left, my VERY excited niece and nephew woke up, came to the kitchen, and began to chat.

"This is my FIRST vacation! I can't believe it! I LIVE in a CABIN now! I wonder if mom is sad. I bet she's scared. She might think we're being EATEN right NOW [by the mountain lion]." This was at 5:45 a.m. Oh.my.carrots. I'll admit grouchy Auntie J showed up for a few minutes, though my lecture wasn't entirely for the two bright-eyed youth. "Do you always get up this early?" I asked incredulously. "Sometimes," was the answer. Eventually they were taken out to a vehicle to watch a movie until we, including the new parents who'd had a fussy lad much of the night, were more ready to start our day.

Brennen was my kitchen buddy; we started preparing breakfast around 9 a.m. L and baby were still trying to catch some of those elusive nighttime zzzz's. I turned on the electric stovetop. Pulled out a non non-stick pan--what? Put Brennen in charge of the bacon--because frankly, he rocks at bacon-making--and started working on waffles (we ended up making the ENTIRE box!!) So it turns out that the combination of a new kind of stove top (ours is gas), a new kind of pan, and thinner than usual slabs of bacon results in immediate smoking charcoal-like sticks of burningness. And off go the fire alarms. Shrieking at the top of their collective voices. I threw the smoking pan of grease/charred bacon outside, turned on all the fans to high, opened every window and outside door in the place--and still the fire alarms shrieked. Ugh.

Eventually everything calmed down, we had a nice breakfast, and though the alarms had disturbed L, she said the baby didn't even notice. Ha! Babies :)


Despite their early arrival at the official family deer blinds, the hunters did not have early morning success. This turned out to be a good thing, since my dad and brother forgot their phones (for taking pictures of any deer they might harvest, along with the ability to ask for help in the field dressing process) and their tag. The deer cooperated nicely by not being shot-worthy and got them into no trouble with the DNR ;)

Later in the afternoon, they gave it another go. Success!! Gabby shot a big buck right through the heart. They were a bit late in getting back to the cabin for dinner, but they decided the temperature would be cool enough overnight (dropping into the 40s) that the meat would be fine to hang 'til the next day.






Meanwhile at the cabin, we'd spent a day with cousins! Lots of guitar lessons took place, basketball games, Frisbee, throwing the football around, playing at the newly built playground, riding Piglet, petting the guinea pigs, and trying to find space for all the food. My cousin L is a fantastic baker and she made bars, brownies, and more treats. My Aunt C brought a big tub of my favorite bran muffins stuffed with strawberry cream cheese! It was a joke of the weekend to see who would discover the three that didn't get filling because the cream cheese ran out during the baking process. How funny that my sister-in-law didn't like the filling and saved the very last muffin for me--which was an empty! Had she just switched her muffin, we'd both have ended up with the kind we liked :) It didn't matter, they were all good!

We decided it would be easier to eat all the family meals at the cabin. My aunt and uncle brought some card tables and folding chairs to expand our seating capabilities for outdoor dining. My twin cousins brought dinner the first night--pulled pork sandwiches from their smoker; so yummy!

Afterwards, my brother broke out his computer and attached it to the t.v. (I don't know if we'd even turned the t.v. on before then!) From there, he was able to show long-forgotten home movies from when we were kids, family photos, even grandparent photos. It was great to laugh and share memories and be completely shocked at our previous fashion and hair choices ;) You'd think by now, we'd have remembered and shared all the stories there are to share--but NOPE, I heard a bunch this round that I have no recollection of--many from funerals of distant relatives we were all taken to ask youngsters. Hmmm.










This was my sweep of the room sans panorama. I got just about all the grown-ups, but I think some of the little ones were playing upstairs. My crew was good about teaching the younger set the games we brought along--Blockus and Dutch Blitz. The cabin certainly isn't huge, so it was good to have everyone finding their own nook. We (with the exception of Mr. Baby and his dear parents) slept really well that night!