Fourth of July at the Cabin, Weekend 1

Is this the Fourth of July holiday weekend? Is it next weekend? Should we just celebrate them both out of pure confusion? Yes, I think that's appropriate.

We're at the cabin again this weekend and staying for the next 10 days. It's an awesome feeling to not be in clean up mode. Sundays always seem to be the most beautiful days and we're stuck wanting to play and relax and pick up and go home. Today, there's no such dilemma.

One of my best girlfriends, Val, and her family visited our cabin this weekend. Val and her husband Brionn have two little ones - Kasen and Linden - and Tory was in seventh heaven with friends to play with at the cabin. Although, I can't say Kasen felt the same way.

In Tory's defense (and I will defend her because she's my little girl), I think she was so excited to play but not quite big enough to get in on the action. Often times, she used Kasen to pull herself into standing position so she could see what he was doing. Luckily, Kasen was a pretty good sport about Tory touching and pulling on him most of the weekend. I tried to coach her as much as I could to "be gentle" when she tugged at him and I think that's absolutely my role as a parent to ensure she's not bullying others, but I also think it's important for her to play and interact with other kids on her own.

This weekend was the first time I've noticed Tory be so aware of other kids around her. She saw many of her little cousins in Nebraska over Memorial Day weekend, but she had little interest in playing with them. With Kasen, she spent much of the weekend watching him play toys and eat at meal times. It also really upset Tory every time Linden would cry and soon she'd cry, too, out of concern for the baby.

Saturday afternoon was picture perfect. During Kasen and Tory's afternoon naps, the adults floated in the lake and drank frozen cocktails. Thank goodness for baby monitors that reach to the lake shore! Near our dock, several sunfish were getting ready to lay their eggs and very territorial. The fish were swimming right up to us in the water and even nipping at our toes - eek! This, of course, forced me to crawl up onto a floatie and never move until I heard peeps from the baby monitor.

Miss Linden's first time in the lake.

Sunshine girls in matching swimming suits.
Linden and Tory

Floating with mama

We took all the kiddos for a pontoon ride. Based on the screams from little ones being stuffed in life jackets, I didn't know how our trip around the lake would go but all the babes was content once we started moving. Little Linden must've been comfortable - she even fell asleep!

After the kids went to bed, Val, Brionn, Andi and I sat on the pontoon and fished. I would venture to say we spend more time sitting on our pontoon tied to the dock than we do actually driving it on the lake. Then like good hosts, Andi and I went to bed at 10pm and left Val and Brionn to fend for themselves. Cabin life usually renders us comatose by sundown.

I'm looking forward to another few days here to celebrate summer.