Cabin Trip 2016: Frog Catching and Pony Petting

With the summer booking up always so fast, we were anxious to plan dates for the cabin. We arrived early Friday morning and it was freezing, frigid, colder than ever! Ok, it was 50 degrees but with the wind, it was a lot colder than I expected for beginning of July.

The moment we were unloaded the kids headed to the dock for the easiest 'fishing' ever.

Grandpa has a small little rod with nothing but a string, hook, and a smidge of a worm. There are literally hundreds of fish waiting at the end of the dock to be the next picture of the day.

As Austin drops the hook again and again, I asked Ava to turn around and smile at me. And this is what I got. I shouldn't be surprised since she's a photographer's daughter, but geez Ava, could you slow down on this 'growing up' thing!?

Now THIS is my Ava. Silly and Quirky to the bone!

And always ready to give Grandpa a good smack when needed.

Fish #43. And Austin still remains excited.

The view never gets old.

Time to lure the larger than life snapping turtles.

With none other than cut up hot dogs.

This year, one of the 6 horses they have up there had a pony!

Ava is always smitten with the horses.

And overly joyed about feeding them carrots.

And she asked if she could get horse back riding lessons.....how come I have to keep reminding her that she is FOUR??

Off grandpa and Austin went to catch more frogs and before I knew it Austin was running towards me with his hands in the air!

And these are my favorite photos! Genuine smile of pure joy.

That's about as close as Ava gets to something slimy which is odd since she's the messiest child on the planet. She still eats with her hands for Pete's sake!

Mommy, I got flowers for you!!

The hammock got lots of use.

And every once and a while I was drawn to the light...

Austin pushed Grandma and Ava on the hammock over and over and over. He pretended there was a storm and things would get rocky and Ava would hold on for dear life while belly laughing to her core.

And even though it wasn't night just yet, we begged Grandpa for a fire so we could eat some s'mores.

And boy were they delicious.

We even busted out some sparklers since it was 4th of July weekend.

And Austin and Ava decided to snuggle on the hammock

Day TWO

More frog catching

But first coffee (or in Ava's world, a strong cup of hot chocolate)

And back to the pony we go.

This time Ava got even closer.

And he nibbled on her sweatshirt

she fell in love.

Bye Pony! Until next year.

We may be able to stay two nights next year. Austin didn't sleep great but did pretty ok. Ava slept good. I was having horrible tooth pain from a darn root that went bad. But the kids have amazing memories from this place and so do I. Jason was working on building an addition onto the house so hopefully he can make it next time!  I am glad we make the trip regardless of what's going on and hopefully we can make it up for longer stays or more than one stay in the years to come.