(Note: If you click on the pictures they will open full size)
April here is usually warm and beautiful. The winter cold is past, and the heat of the summer isn't upon us yet. That is what Friday and Saturday were like... But on Thursday when we were driving to the end of the road, the clouds got steadily darker and darker, and it started slush/snowing on us. By the end of the road it was a really wet snow. Fortunately the VanDyke's had some poncho's and garbage bags we converted into ponchos for the girls. Somehow we talked the whole VanDyke clan into a weekend at the cabin. Shayne wasn't worried about the snow at all. "It builds character" he kept saying... I am very impressed with Karena and her being all for hiking 3.42 miles in the snow up to the cabin with 10 month old on her back!
We got out of town a little late, and then with the snow probably went a little slower on the road than normal. And then the snow and mud slowed up the hike, so we ended up about 2 hours 30 minutes hiking in. Which meant we were in the dark about the last hour.
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| Clara being snowed on at the End of the Road |
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| Steff all poncho'd up and ready for an exciting hike in! |
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| Clara is only 3 and can't walk all the way. Steff is amazing and carried a pack and Clara whenever she couldn't walk. |
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| Nolan trying to keep Clara and Alayna VanDyke out of mud puddles... |
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| Sometimes I ended up in them! |
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| The camera got some moisture in it. I think that's Karena and Kason on her back. |
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| Another muddy, snowing trail shot |
That night we fired up the wood stove and heated up water for hot cocoa (not hot chocolate... Alayna corrected me on that one). We were all dead tired that night. The VanDyke's took the upstairs and we took the downstairs rooms.
That morning everyone work up warm, happy and hungry! It was my day to cook, so I fired up the stove and make pancakes, bacon and eggs. 2lb's of bacon is more than we could eat, even for Mikayla! At breakfast we all chose our cabin names for the trip.
The Wright's:
Nolan -- Big Papa Flyfish: No story, just a good name!
Steffenie -- Steamy: When she was taking her pack off the night we arrived, the cabin was quite cool, and steam was rising off of her back!
Lexa -- Mikayla. She likes to have nick-names of other real people. This time she chose the name of someone else on the cabin trip. Very confusing! We need to work with her on the whole nick-name thing.
Clara -- Claraboo. This is her favorite nick-name, so we decided to keep going!
The VanDyke's:
Shayne: Mountain Weasel: If I remember correctly he has had a lot of nick names with "weasel" in them over the years...
Karena: Dropper Spotter: Definitely a story to this one! She saw a tiny spider dropping from the ceiling, and said "I see a spider dropping" and all the rest of us thought how is it possible you can even see "spider droppings?" They gotta be too small to even see! She meant that the spider was dropping from the ceiling... But the name stuck!
Mikayla: Pig Eater: She likes bacon, what can I say?
Damon: Ninja Master
Alayna: Super Hiker: She is only 4 and hiked all the way up in the mud and snow!
Kason: He didn't have a cup, so no cabin name :(
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| Super Hiker (Alayna) and Claraboo (Clara) enjoying the pancakes and bacon. |
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| Big Papa Flyfish, the Friday morning breakfast cook. Love that crazy hair! |
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| Pig Eater (Mikayla), Ninja Master (Damon), Mikayla (Lexa) and a rear-view of Mountain Weasel (Shayne)... |
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| Dropping Spotter (Karena) and Kason enjoying the fire |
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| Some of the snow was still around by morning |
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| This was Claraboo's "Motorcycle" |
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| Nolan and Shayne working on getting the honda 125 back running |
The rest of the trip was filled with sun and warm weather. I think it made up for the wet hike, but I don't know if I've Steff convinced of that yet. We spent most of the time playing outdoors and hiking. Shayne and I took the kids on a hike while the mom's and younger kids took naps. We walked by some of the other cabins and then followed game trails home after crossing a stream. Shayne brought a pellet gun up and we all did some target practice. Lexa out-shot me! Eventually I hit the can, but she hit it before I did! That'll have to play into her next cabin name.
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| Alayna, Damon and Lexa on the swings |
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| Karena tied on the old, flat tether-ball. The kids didn't mind, plus it didn't hurt to hit! |
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| Kason had a great time! |
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| Lexa smiling on the swing |
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| More swinging |
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| Lexa got her boots stuck more than once in the mud |
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| Alayna swi\nging, Clara on the slide, and Damon and Mikayla on the teeter-totter |
Swing Montage of Clara and Alayna with Kason in the background
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| This is the "cougar print" Steff and Nolan saw when we went out on a hike! At least that's what we told Karena when we got back... We had her going, but I caved and told her it was most likely a large dog. You can see the claws are extended. Cougars retract them when they walk. |
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| Nolan hiking |
We had cup-o-noodles and regular ramen for lunch on Friday. That means we have at least 3 packets of Shin Ramen (aka hot soup) at the cabin for future trips! That night we built a fire to roast hot dogs and sausage on for dinner out in the fire pit. After that Shayne and I started the clean out of the wood shed. We built the fire into a bon-fire and tossed all the boxes of wood with rats nests and everything that we could shovel out. There is still a good bit of cleaning to be done to the wood shed and next time we'll bring up some canned foam to seal all the corners.
After working on the wood shed we figured it would be best to shower up. And I can say that the cabin shower works great! There are only 2 things to keep in mind. To start the shower pull the spout knob out and hold it out until water is coming out the shower head. And second the temperature knob works fine, there is just a small range between all hot and all cold. It is a low flow shower, but it gets plenty hot!
This is probably the right time to note that both Shayne and Karena were pantsless at one time or another in the living room! We just averted our gaze.
I also brought up my arduino datalogger I'd been working on. Unfortunately it stopped working part way through the trip, so I brought it back to do some more work on it.
That night the kids watched a movie up stairs and the parents played some Ruckus and Scum. We also donated Farkle to the cabin games. We changed things up on scum a bit. We used 2 decks (including 4 jokers) for 4 people. It was a ton of cards. And we played you could go around as many times as it takes until every passed. I won every round but one, and odds are I always had jokers. The last round (which I lost) Shayne was VP and ended up with 3 of the jokers. That was hard to beat!
The next morning Shayne was in charge of breakfast. We had french toast, another 2lbs of bacon and cheese with some eggs mixed in! Shayne packed up an entire block of cheese and wasn't too interested in packing it down, so we had lots of cheese. He also brought up a whole pound of butter and a full ranch salad dressing too... Come on Shayne, it builds character, right?
We brought up Easter Eggs and candy. Steff and Karena filled the eggs and conducted a successful easter egg hunt. Said hunt was mentioned by many of the kids when asked what their favorite part of the trip was. While the eggcitement was going on, Shayne and I took a motorcycle ride to the end of the road and dropped off a couple backpacks chock full of gear, food, garbage, etc., so the hike down would be much easier. Plus we got to go on a moto ride! Shayne is getting much better on the motorcycle, most impressive!
Let the Easter Egg Hunt Begin!
One thing this spring has brought was a lot of mud! So while Shayne and I were working on the wood shed, we put the kids to work on extending the back porch out. We also added a brick and paver path behind the cabin. There is supposed to be a french drain back there, but it must be clogged or something because it was a muddy mess!
There are piles of bricks, cinder blocks, pavers, etc sitting around, and we figured they could be put to good use, and the kids got to help out with a project! And when we started using we unearthed "Cragmont" pop cans from 20 yrs ago (based on the expiration date) that were used as bb-gun targets! They looked good as new. Those cinder blocks seemed a lot further away when I was 20 years younger...
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| The extended porch! |
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| Lexa on the new path behind the cabin |
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| Lexa showing off the new porch |
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| Lexa on her way to say her final good-byes to Mrs. Murphy |
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| Lexa posing in the sun |
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| Alayna, Mikayla, Lexa and Damon with backpacks on the outdoor bar ready to head home |
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| Shayne with Kason strapped on his back! |
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| Kason loved hiking |
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| Nolan locking the cabin door |
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| Group Photo as we leave |
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| Another with me in it |
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| Steff carried Clara most of the way out, but it was a lot easier because I already took her pack down. Clara still has easter candy in hand |
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| Clara took a nap on Steff's back. Sometimes she would lean back. She is sound asleep in this pic! |
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| We made it to the end of the road!!! |
It was a beautiful hike down and there were people everywhere! I don't think they hiked all the way in to the cabin, but there were tons of people, cars, and dogs too. And Shayne's van was dead. It seems that all the kids left interior lights on inside... Lucky for him I always carry jumper cables! After we brought his car back to life and got his fancy power doors working again, we headed into town for a final dinner at Milton-Freewater Dairy Queen. We were back home Saturday evening with plenty of time to give the girls baths so they'd be clean and squeaky for their new Easter dresses to wear to church Sunday.
