We have a little cabin in the Big Woods of northern Wisconsin.
{Doesn't that sound just like a Laura Ingalls Wilder book?}
We love our little cabin, even though we don't get there very often.
This year, the whole family {minus Ryan who had to work} got to spend a week there and we had so much fun.
The kids didn't make it up last summer, and so Jackson didn't really remember the cabin, so it was fun reintroducing him, and introducing Claire to life in the Big Woods:-)
We had Bob's side of the family up one day, spent another day with my side at my brother's place which is about 30 minutes from us, and the girls had a childhood friend up another day.
Lots of activity!
I, as usual, took a minimum of photos, but here are a few highlights of our week.
Beginning with a sweet tradition...
We always have peanut butter m&m's on the counter.
This year I began the week with the giant bag and I know I had to add a few more bags as the week progressed:-)
Everyone loves them and it's a sweet treat that we don't dare indulge in at home.
We were also blessed with hot weather. It can go either way up north ~ cool ~ rainy ~ hot ~ humid. We had more of the hot this time and that is good because when you have 10 people + lots of company you want to be outside in the water!
Here are Jackson and Ben enjoying the lake.
Elizabeth and her dad.
I like to make the grands pancakes in the morning. I saw these on pinterest and wanted to make these at the cabin. Our cabin has kind of a bear theme going on that I started for the grandchildren.
These were perfect and they loved them.
The addition of syrup was supposed to be his mouth but it sure ended up looking like a mustache!
My brother has planted hundreds of trees on his property. This tree was planted when Elizabeth was born and it was teeny tiny. She loved having a tree named after her:-)
Another pinterest project checked off!
I made this dessert one day ~ it's supposed to be a campfire.
It's a brownie with icing and candy ~ they loved it.
Another fun activity is the sandbox.
I think this might have been Claire's first time in a sandbox. She liked digging but didn't want to get in.
An action shot of the bean bag game.
My brother made this game for us and we love it.
This one represents KC, where we lived for many years.
And of course this is where we live now, and where all of the grands were born.
One day when we didn't have any company we went to a nearby town and went to the county fair. I knew the kids had never been to a county fair, and I'm not sure if my girls had ever been to one either.
We saw some farm animals up close.
{of course these are llamas, I don't know why they'd be on a farm, but we did see pigs, sheep, cows and horses}
Tom and Cooper eating snocones.
It was hot!
Elizabeth and Ben.
Is that big enough Jackson:-)
We stopped by the barn dedicated to my uncle. He was very involved in this fair, and the kids had fun finding their names on the donor board.
Before we left the fair the kids did a few rides. It was so hot, I just snapped a few pictures and then I went to look for shade!
Cooper is not too sure about this.
He ended up loving it as it went around in a circle forward, but then it reversed and he hated it. After that he was done with rides.
And at the end of the trip on our way out of town we always stop by and arrange ourselves in many combinations in front of the big fish.
It's tradition!
And she's outta there.
We had such a wonderful time.
