Snow!!!

Two + feet of snow at the cabin means snow for Christmas, which was what we were hoping for!!! Yaaaay!

the Nap Shack

I've never seen the water this high before. There were several boathouses on the road in that were partially submerged. Same with several docks. That has to do some damage.

This area where the trees are is usually nowhere near the water. We keeps buckets down here with life jackets, etc, in them during summer. Last weekend when we were up, everything started to float away and Dennis had to go out in the canoe and haul everything back. I think he got everything, including the logs to our firepit, which you can see is now underwater.

Taylor doing some crafty thing to occupy herself.

We've been spending Friday nights at the cabin lately - it's been fun getting it stocked for living. We've bought most everything second hand, which has made it super cheap, and fun for me, as I like treasure hunting at thrift stores.

The outside still needs quite a bit of work, but we've done the structural stuff before the pretty stuff, so it will be next summer before we paint or update the outside.

This picture was taken in the kitchen. To the right are the windows and the lake. This door in the living room is the closest door to the outdoor bathroom.

Our dining "room".

Kimberly reading as she monitors nacho-making in the kitchen. The room beyond will be the kids' bunkroom. Someday we hope to have a real kitchen, but for now we make do quite nicely with our "new" used stove and our single countertop/cabinet.

You can see some of the structural work that's been done in this picture. The beams that support the cabin have all been replaced and the cabin levelled, although that has made some places in the inside look a little off-kilter. Luckily, this was done before the sheetrock, so we just sheetrocked over the quirkiness and you can't notice it unless you are sitting on the couch gazing at the walls for long periods of time. It gives it character. The guys also dug a trench and laid a pipe last weekend to channel some of the water that gives our cabin the ability to be called "a river runs through it". There is a little stream somewhere up the hill that makes a mud hole of our driveway come winter, spring, fall and anytime it rains in summer. It did help the drainage issue - laying gravel in the driveway is our next step. We also plan to build a deck around the cabin sides and back so we don't have to walk on water. It would make our shady area much more livable. We can also watch after the kids playing in the treehouse and woods behind our cabin better from a deck. Things to look forward to!

Firestarters

"Helping" dad start a fire on Friday night.

First Allowance

Explaining the facts of life: no worky means no money. She did get a few dollars, but much less than she could have earned. This week she is doing better.

Happy Girl

Look how big she is. This picture astounds me. She looks almost as tall as me. It brings me to the reality that in not-so-many years, she will probably be as tall or taller than me.

Thanks for voting in my "baby boy name poll".

Please keep voting and feel free to leave a name you like if you aren't going to use it for your family. I'm having a hard time with a boy name. I like Cooper the best, but haven't been able to get over all the things he could be called - "pooper Cooper", "poopy coopy", etc. Dennis said he thinks they'll just call him "Super Cooper". Yeaaaahh . . that sounds likely.

Bedtime

We've been having a super difficult time getting the kids to go to bed lately. We put them in bed at 8 p.m., and they are still awake at 9:30, 10 o'clock. Last night I got so fed up with it I came up with an artful parenting plan. (my old plan consisted of me yelling up in increasingly irritated tones "Kids, go to bed!!!!!")

Last night, after two hours of listening to them yuk it up in their bedroom when they were supposed to be asleep, I got up, went to the laundry room, grabbed a two-foot high pile of their laundry, and took it upstairs. I switched on the light, and said "I can tell you guys really aren't sleepy. There is so much to do around here, you might as well spend your time usefully, so put away this laundry. And clean the room when you are done. Then you can try going to sleep again. If you still aren't sleepy after the laundry and cleaning the room, I'll find you something else to do. I think we'll do this every night until you get tired, because it's obvious I am putting you to bed too early."

This evening at dinner as I reminded them that they had 30 more minutes until their old bedtime aka their new cleaning time, they looked at each other in trepidation. After several minutes of silence, Kimi finally asked, "Will you give us another try to go to sleep instead of working?" I replied, "Well, I'm not sure. You would have to be really quiet. I wouldn't want to hear any talking whatsoever, and no moving around that tells me you are playing quietly. If you think you can lie still and be absolutely quiet, I would be willing to let you try it." She assured me she thought she could do it. And so my lead instigator became my number one collaborator. She spent the last 20 minutes before bed reminding her sisters that they had to lay completely still and not talk!

The end result is that I spent two very quiet hours before my bedtime enjoying the peace. Amazing what a little artful thinking can do. It's so easy to continue to do the same things and continue to get results you don't like. And so easy to change your behaviour and get an amazing result. Yaaaayyy for me! One of my better parenting moments. :)

Cabin Update

We spent Friday night and Saturday up at the cabin this weekend. The guys finished getting the outside weatherproofed - the whole back of the cabin didn't have any siding on it as it all had to be replaced due to rot. The siding also had to be repaired where we added windows for the two lofts on either side of the cabin. This weekend they finished the trim on the inside of the cabin, and it looks fantastic. Dennis did an excellent job trimming out the windows and putting up baseboards. With the beautiful paint job and white trim, the place is really coming together.

Our next project is building bunk beds for the kids' room. Right now they sleep with us in the loft. We figured out a plan to put in 8 or 9 bunks in the room off the kitchen.

It is becoming easier to spend time up there as we stock the cabin with kitchen supplies, bedding, etc. I've had fun this past week looking through thrift stores for our pots, pans and other kitchen gear. There is such good stuff out there, and so cheap. Also fun because it is vintage, I'm recycling, etc, etc. Good all around. Everything up at the cabin, with the exception of a rug and the construction supplies, is second-hand.

Hopefully, soon we'll just have to pack an outfit, pajamas & toothbrush (come to think of it we should get toothbrushes for up there so we don't have to bring them) and leave the house. Not having to cart up bedding & supplies makes things much simpler.

It's a boy!

We are having a boy! I'd post a picture, but the only one I have since the little guy wasn't cooperating is a frontal shot of his face, which looks like a very cute little skull. I think it may scare people. At least I can tell his bone structure is very symmetrical. I already had a name picked out for a girl, as I had convinced myself that's what I was having, so am trying to think of boy names.
If you have a suggestion for a boy's name, leave a comment below.

fire pit

Dennis, Aaron and Dad made this fire pit down by the lake.

There is a sail boat race every year - these sail boats are having fun, or perhaps practicing for that. There were 3 on the lake yesterday, but in this picture you only see two. We also saw/heard 3 military jets fly over. They flew the length of the lake and then banked between two hills at the end of the lake.

Taylor found clay at the beach. She mad several cute things - a heart, fish, turtle and an imprint of her hand. It dries firmly, but is fairly brittle.

Cabin Remodel taken yesterday

Dennis is working to get the sheetrock mudding and taping done. He is in the entrance to the two lofts here. On either side of him is a loft for the adults to sleep in. The kids will sleep in the bedroom downstairs - we are going to build bunks on the wall for them.

Aaron is in our loft changing some electrical stuff.






















Kimi is in the kitchen scraping old linoleum off the wood sub-floor. We plan to sand and paint the wood floor with floor paint until we can put something else on. Joe really did the work, but he let Kimi have a go at it.
This view is from the living room looking at the bar, kitchen and entrance to the loft above. To the right of the kitchen is the kids bedroom.
This is looking from the cabin kitchen door to the living room.

Current pictures from the cabin

from the water
sunset - Dennis' favorite time of day - he likes to sit in this spot and watch the sun go down.
taking a break from all his hard work
The girls on the path going down to the beach. A month ago this looked very bare.
The kids have found many animals up there. This is a bird's nest in the bank behind the cabin. The baby birds hatched and they were able to see that as well. They've also found several little snakes, too many bugs for their liking, some kind of small water animal (I hope it isn't a musk rat, but I kind of think it is), and they accidently found a shrew as they were digging somewhere. It was killed by the shovel on accident and then was cremated. We have also seen an eagle up there, and of course, you can see fish jumping in the lake all the time.

Pictures of the lake

This is the front of the cabin during the winter. The construction debri is gone now. I'll get a current picture this coming weekend.
Kimberly and I making hot chocolate for the first time at the cabin when we still had a kitchen. The inside of the cabin, and some of the structure has been gutted and replaced due to rot and the need to replace the electrical system.
Child in distress contemplating the near-future use of an out-house with a slanting/partly missing floor. We've replaced this with a Honeybucket, which the kids are much happier using.
Inside of cabin after we took off the inner walls.
We had to replace the back wall of the entire cabin because it was rotten.

Swimming at the cabin

I had to take some windows up to the lake for our remodel, so the girls brought their suits. The sun was shining, and the lake was gorgeous and calm.

The view from our beach across the lake.


Kimi on the surfboard - this is one of their favorite toys there.

Taylor





Reportedly, this surf board has been around since before Aaron was a kid on the lake. He and his brother used to tow it behind a boat and try to surf on it.

Taylor's Girl Scout Awards Ceremony, June 16th

This is Taylor's 5th year of Girl Scouting.
Taylor performing the flag ceremony.
Performing "Baby Shark", a lovely girl scouting song, like all the other lovely girl scouting songs, where there is a baby shark, a momma shark, a daddy shark, a grandma shark, a shark sighting, a shark attack, a person losing an arm, same person swimming in a circle (because of being one armed), calling 911, going to heaven, and finally, coming back as a baby shark. It can go on and on.
Taylor's part of the ceremony was to write about one of the badges they earned during the year - Prints and Graphics - and then speak about it at the ceremony.
Getting her 5 year pin.

Igloo - New Year's 2008

Dennis and the girls made this igloo at his parent's house in Wenatchee over New Year's 2008. They piled all the snow from the side yard, so much so that it looks as though the ground was bare all around the igloo. The girls really wanted to sleep in it.
Emilie actually got sick on this trip - she spent the rest of the night visiting the bathroom every 10 minutes, poor thing.