First Snow this Season

This weekend, Andi, Tory and I made (what will likely be) our last trip to the cabin before Baby #2 arrives. It started as a fairly uneventful weekend - one not even blog post worthy, really - and ended with our parental hearts bursting over Tory's first realization of snowfall. It's so awesome when average, everyday moments turn into extraordinary ones.

So, the boring stuff ... Friday, we made stops during our drive to the cabin to pick up a new dishwasher and re-stock the pantry with grocery necessities. Andi is in full-on nesting mode when it comes to the cabin and every weekend exhibits the readying /or completion of projects he's got in the works there. I'm not even kidding when I say I have no idea what he's up to half the time. This weekend's project: Operation Buy A New Dishwasher. Which means, no more doing dishes when I'd rather be outside in the summertime or burning through gigantic amounts of paper disposables when we have visitors at the cabin, so I can get behind that. Tory didn't have a nap Friday afternoon, so by the time we got settled in at the cabin she was ready for bed. "Night, night," she said, "Turn light off" around 7:30pm so bedtime was a breeze (for once!) and Andi and I hung around the cabin together for the remainder of the evening.

Saturday was pretty chill as well. Our friends Krista and Josh brought their daughter, Hannah, over for a play date Saturday morning. We hung around the cabin and chatted for a few hours. I had high hopes of making one more trip to the apple orchard on Saturday but the weather was dreary and rainiy. After lunch and Tory's nap, the three of us spent the afternoon at Menards returning our just-purchased dishwasher and buying a better quality model. Man, those stores suck hours of your life away. No one felt like cooking after our trip to the Hole of Home Improvement, so we met up with Josh and Krista again at Hilltop Retreat for dinner out. The little girls weren't stoked about sitting nicely at dinner, so it wasn't the most relaxing of double-date nights. Leaving the kids with a babysitter is definitely in order the next time we all go out to dinner again.

Sunday, though ... Sunday was the magical day of the weekend. Andi, Tory and I woke up around 6:30am and watched the sunrise over breakfast at the cabin. We decided to bundle up and walk over to the neighbor's cabin for a visit. The weather was a chilly 32 degrees and a rain / snow mix outside, but nothing was sticking to the ground. Tory was too excited to stomp in the mud puddles along the way in her cute little ladybug galoshes. At Joe and Lisa's cabin, we sat in the garage by the warm wood-burning stove and chatted for a bit. Tory must have been too cozy for her own good because a while later she was fast asleep on my lap. That hasn't happened since she was a baby! While Tory slept, the rest of us continued to talk and at some point, Andi helped Joe pull his pontoon out of the lake for the winter. By the time we left two hours later, it was full-on snowing outside. Puffy, white snowflakes were sticking to the trees and fallen leaves on the ground. We bundled up for our walk back to our cabin and had the best time watching Tory experience snow for the first third time. Technically, it's her third winter experience, but she acted as if she'd never seen big white snowflakes fall from the sky before. Tory squealed with delight as we walked. She bent down and scooped up some freshly fallen white snow in her glove, then licked it and smiled. Watching the season's first snowfall through our daughter's eyes was one of those cloud-nine parenting moments I could just bottle up and keep forever.

I'm dreading the crappy parts of winter (slick roads, cold temps, dreary days) just like everyone else, but I have to admit watching Tory in the snow on Sunday was the highlight of my weekend. I will say over and over that TWO is the best age. Tory is so fun right now with all her talking and excitement about life. It's going to be fun watching her experience winter cabin life for the very first third time this year ... and exciting to bring a new baby boy with us next time for an entirely new cabin life to begin.