Since my earliest memories, I have been blessed with experiencing my grandma’s cabin in the mountains.  I have memories of Santa’s Village, skiing, a special weekend with my grandma, grandpa, and dad, building big snowmen, Christmas, carving stairs out of the block of snow the plow dumped out front, power outages, Thanksgiving, cousins, sliding down the stairs, saucers, scary toboggan rides, no fences, long walks, Arrowhead Outlets, Blue Jay, boutique shopping, laying on the beach at the lake, the view of the city below, snow-blanketed field, icicles, puzzles, tic tac toe, a mug with my very own name on it, Back to the Future and James Bond marathons.

Now, I have the privilege of sharing it with my own family.  We spent last New Year’s Eve there, and caught a huge snowstorm.

This fall, which felt more like a blazing summer, we escaped up there for a short break from the heat.  We had a great walk at the lake!

This winter break, we went up for a few days to get away from normal life for a little while.  We got there in time for a small snowstorm.

This was my first time seeing individual snowflakes.  I had almost thought the beautiful snowflake images I’d seen in the past were artist renderings, or flakes looked that way only on a microscopic level, but in this light shower, I saw them!  Our camera couldn’t capture them with clarity, but we tried.  It only lasted a while before the snowfall became heavier and the flakes were stuck together.

While we were there, we had some music lessons and did some crafts.

We shared responsibilities (as best we could with little guys).  The big boys both did great with dishes and vacuuming.

We watched movies of course (lots of LeapFrog) and played games.  Many games.  I was excited to find Old Maid.  It looked just like the one Grandma and I used to play together.  She (between bursts of laughter) still recounts my young face animatedly transforming when I pulled the Old Maid.  A bit of a deer in headlights look, I suppose.  Apparently I had no poker face.  Anyway, I was excited to see how the boys liked it.  While they seemed considerably less worried about receiving the Old Maid than I was, one of them definitely thought it stunk.

And he was kind enough to offer suggestions when it was time for me to pull one of his cards.

The fun part was how hilarious they thought it was when we pulled the Old Maid from them.

The boys noticed their first earthquake while we were there.  It rattled us a bit, but we had the opportunity to show them everything is OK, and earthquakes aren’t a big deal if you know what to do.

We had great walks and good cuddle time.  It was a wonderful time away from home.  Until next time, Cabin!