Cabin Weekend, Just the Two of Us

Exciting news!

Andi and I decided to rent our lake cabin for an entire year beginning this October. We've been  toying with the idea of buying a cabin of our own one day and thought the best way to see if we'd use a cabin in the wintertime is to rent one all year long. It's a big commitment of time and money, so I hope we made the right decision. Andi's always one for good persuasion tactics and his promise of more quality time as a family won me over.

Originally, we'd reserved this past weekend to move everything out of the cabin. We have beds, ATVs, food and kitchen stuff there, plus the dock and boat in the water so it'd take a full day's work to accomplish it all. Andi lined up his mom to babysit Tory overnight so we could do it all without worrying about her. Since we didn't move out, we decided to use the time as a getaway for the two of us instead.

Saturday morning, Andi and I dropped Tory off at his parent's house and enjoyed the scenic fall colors along the drive to the cabin. It's peak fall weather in Minnesota and Wisconsin and the beautiful leaves were absolutely breathtaking. This is such a inspiring place we live in when it's not completely buried in snow and ice.

At the cabin, we met our friends Derrick and Ellie who were moving their stuff out. We'll be renting the cabin on our own this coming year, so we're expecting many friends and family to come visit us! The four of us took the pontoon for one last trip around the lake before the official close of summer. We made it all the way around without rushing back to shore with a screaming kid stuffed in a life jacket. It was glorious!

Our sexy boat captain

The boys pulled the dock and pontoon out of the water, while Ellie packed up a few things in the house and I sat on the deck and painted my toenails. I can't even remember the last time I was able to do that! It surely wasn't this summer, I know that for sure.

Out came the dock ... and summer's officially over.

The four of us went to the County Line Bar for lunch and Andi begged to drive the ATV there. We never get to do that when Tory's along, he said, so I agreed. It was thrilling, riding along the road with the wind whipping through my hair, arms wrapped around Andi's middle. We were living like teenagers or newlyweds or people who don't have a baby. Andi kept smiling back at me; we were having so much fun together.

Derrick and Ellie left and Andi and I had the rest of the evening together. We sat in the hot tub and day-dreamed about a future cabin we'd love to own one day. Then, we drove to Balsam Lake for dinner at Indianhead Supper Club. The people watching was excellent and our entrees were tasty, too. Afterwards, we stopped by our cabin landlord's place on the lake for a bonfire and beers. It was the perfect evening.

Sunday morning, we both slept in until 8:30am (weee!) and then drove back to the Twin Cities to relieve Andi's mom of babysitting duties. It sounded like Tory had a fun weekend playing with her cousins Connor and Mia, so she barely missed us. I'm struggling through the work day today because I feel like I didn't get much Tory time in this weekend, but it was also so wonderful to reconnect with Andi after busy August and September months. The cabin's good for us, good for our family, and I know we'll enjoy many more memories there in the year to come.