Yes, we love to escape. Thank goodness for the little bit of heaven, two hours and a few mountains away. Thank you to my uncles, grand-parents, Rytting friends and cousins, and my Daddy for building it, twenty-ish years ago. I hope we can keep it up till I can show it to my grandchildren!! Yes, I know I'm a bit young to be thinking about those, but Stephen turned 30. Being married to a 30-year old makes me feel old. Even though mentally I'm stuck at about 20... wonder how long that will last...
Our first afternoon finished with a wonderful mountain rainstorm. It rained a bit every day we were there, in fact. Hooray for the poor, dry, thirsty forests!! We sat outside for a few hours, watching the hummingbirds. They were going CRAZY. There are two common types of hummingbirds around our cabin:
Rufous hummingbirds
And Broad-tailed hummingbirds.
The broad-tailed hummingbirds are the ones that make the loudest whistling sound as they fly by. But it's the rufouses (rufousi? rufousesenenen... never mind) that make the most noise. These little stinkers are MEAN. (I love that picture I found, cuz he LOOKS mean) They are ridiculously territorial. They just hang out by the feeders, dive-bombing any poor little broad-tail who wants a drink. They aren't even drinking!! They just beat up whoever wants to!! They sound hilarious. This nasty, shrill, ticked off squeaking and twittering. Stephen says it makes him think of an angry Chris Rock... but in hummingbird language. He now refers to them as "devil birds". So there would be a swarm of whistling, chattering hummingbirds whizzing around the feeders like giant angry bees for a few minutes, then the rufouses would have to rest, so there would be peaceful, polite feeding, then back they would zoom, breaking up the party and causing general mayhem. My uncle took an awesome video of them, you can see it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV5ILIY7940&feature=youtu.be It cracks me up. The pictures I took don't capture each bird very well, but they give a decent impression.
The next day we had planned a day on the lake (any lake, there are a dozen up there!) but rain clouds were looming, so we had a lazy day. Stephen took himself and Bracken off fishing, and we stayed "home". The boys are finally old enough that I could send them outside to play, and stay inside, being decadent, reading food blogs and books. With the windows open, listening for sounds of distress, of course. Bracken pretty much lives outside when we're up there; she's too used to checking on us to wander far. She loves it. Stephen returned, empty-handed but happy, and we spent the afternoon and evening making calzones and playing at the river. We watched season 2 of Downton Abbey on the ipad that night. Hooray for wifi!! I know, my Dad thinks that is blasphemy. While partly on his side, I must admit there are benefits... please don't kick me out of the will...
Wednesday dawned bright and clear, so we packed up picnics and headed to the lake!! Clouds had started gathering by the time we got there, so it kept switching from warm to chilly, but oh well. That's the mountains for you! Bracken had apparently developed a love for riding in the canoe the day before, so she was ready to go as soon as it was in the water. The boys' favorite part was paddling through the lily pads. Little Stephen kept pretending his hand was a spider, jumping from lily pad to lily pad. We paddled out to a peninsula (looked like an island to me) and set up our fishing station while the boys took their floaties in to explore a patch of lily pads. I was surprised they weren't freezing... oh wait, that was just me. :) I caught the only fish!! A little 11 inch rainbow trout. The fish didn't like us much that day, but we had a heavenly time.
We are home now, and happy to be, but I must admit sometimes I wish we could just move up to the cabin for a few months...
Dancing to Bollywood and flinging their "friends" (and a laundry basket) into the air!
Watermelon on the porch swing. Classic summer.
Here come the rain clouds!!
That piece is HUGE
Mmmm.... watermelon rinds...
a Boy and his Dad
Joe kept trying to convince us he was done with this slice... and then would ask for another one!
Watermelon face!
There's one of those mean little rufouseses!
Hummer Swarm!
He reads books to his brother. How awesome is that?!
Silly kid
Again with the fearlessness!
Joe made it all the way to Grandpa's Rock!
I love our little car!
Butterfly Lake
I'm still not allowed to lift more than 15 pounds, so once again Stephen became SuperHusband!
"All right guys, I'm ready, let's go!"
The boys' first canoe trip!
"Hey, what's all that green stuff??"
Happy Joe
Happy Stephen
Pretty dog, and handsome Hubby
Lily pads!!
Reeeach!!
What funky lookin' lilies!
The view on one side...
...and the other...
There's our spot! We claimed it with chairs. :)
Getting ready to fish! Unfortunately the camera died a few minutes later...
Perfect spot!
Again with the dimples
She brought me a lily pad!
Yup. This is where we play.
Lily pad hat!
Mom said this is called "Trillium"
He's the one that always brings me flowers :)
Ha!! He forgot his bait. *giggle*
"What is Dad doing in the canoe WITHOUT ME?!"
