The past two years, we’ve gone up to the cabin in August and it’s been cool and cloudy. A nice break from the summer heat in town, but we figured we’d try going up earlier in the season and maybe being a little warmer. It worked! We had lots of sun and it was even hot at times. Let this also be known as the year we caught and cooked a fish and both kids cried about it 😅

Picked Dempsey up from school on Friday, finished packing up the car (why is it always so much stuff??) and hit the road, so we were up at the cabin by 5:30ish. Just Lydia yelling “I LOVE BEING HERE!” as we walked up to the front door. We unpacked and then we all made individual pizzas for the grill. Turned out so fun and good! After dinner, we hung out for a bit, got the kids’ room set up (Dempsey only needed like eight different things from his room at home to replicate his sleeping experience), then Joey started a fire so we could make s’mores. I can’t lie, I love a s’more. Got the kids into bed afterward but there were many shenanigans after we left and we could hear them using the pencil sharpener in there 😂

Woke up Saturday to the kids coming out of their room at… 6 AM?! Whyyyyy. Nothing like a cup of coffee in the fresh mountain air 🥰 Joey made us all oatmeal and then we hung out for a bit before getting ready to go fishing. The kids have been talking about fishing for months! I packed us lunch so we wouldn’t have to rush home and then we tried a new spot that Jory recommended to us. It was windy and when the sun went behind the clouds, it was chilly but otherwise it was so nice. Joey caught three fish and we kept the last one to bring home and cook. Both kids knew this was the plan but I guess the idea of catching and cooking a fish is different than actually seeing it done because they both cried. Dempsey shortly after we put it in the cooler to bring home and Lydia later when I grilled it (even though she had watched Joey clean it out). I think they were both tired and it was making them extra emotional, but still 😟

Tears aside, the other highlights of the day were shooting off a BB gun, watching Wallace and Gromit on VHS, getting an ice cream bar with Dempsey (no joke, Lydia fell asleep on the 5-minute drive down the hill AGAIN) and cooking steak and potatoes on the grill. Dempsey ended up trying the fish even. Got those little sleepies to bed much earlier, then hit the hay ourselves.

Lydia was knocking on her door to come out of her room at 6:30 on Sunday, but ended up falling back asleep in our bed 🥹 Dempsey was up a bit later and then Joey made coffee and buttermilk pancakes for he and I and the kids ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch in front of the heater 😂 Packed up, had a little family photo shoot then hopped in the car and were home before 11 AM. Joey and I let the kids rest and get back to their beloved TV while we got our chores done and then we took a quick-ish trip to the splash pad. Lydia fell and busted up her knee AGAIN but she recovered long enough to get back out there and Dempsey was busy the entire time building sand tunnels in the water. I’m so glad we went. Dempsey saw someone else eating McDonald’s and had to have it, so we got Happy Meals for the kids and cooked smash burgers for ourselves.

I hope you all had a good weekend and I hope we didn’t traumatize our kids into being vegetarians 😂 Happy Monday!

P.S. Dempey watched Babe up at the cabin and has been saying “it’s not criminal to be an individual” since 😂😂