August 12-19 Days at the Hackney Cabin.

We're back!  And boy do we have stories to tell.  This is our third year at this cabin.  It is the best week of our year.  WE thought about trying to rent a different cabin this year or next year, on a bigger lake just to mix it up, but we still ended up here, and probably will every summer (we already reserved next year) until we have our own place up here.  As they say, It's a great place to mark the passage of time.  It's where the kids childhood memories are being made, you know the things they will always remember....when they are 40 and say, "remember when we spent a week every summer at the cabin?  That was the best and I want to do the same thing with my kids" ....LOVE:)

We can never get enough of this view......or the quiet.

Day 1 we hiked out to our private beach spot on the Forest Legacy Trail, this year Bee free!   We were nervous, but Josh had the can of bee spray in his pocket ready to fire at a moments notice just in case.  The whole thing was quite comical.   No one will ever forget our bee adventure.  Once we got to our spot, we discovered that someone forgot their bathing suit, but (Ahem,  ALL) went swimming anyway:)

What is that dog doing?? (Trevor with Daddy's swim trunks on)

Day 2 We visited the Height of the land  (awesome view of all the lakes) and Coos Canyon, we swam in a river and went cliff jumping.

My favorite was coming back from our day, the transition into evening sitting down by the lake in the Adirondack chairs with a good book (I finished two) or a magazine, a bowl of chex mix and a glass of wine.  The kids would swim and fish.  Trevor had an awesome loon call. WE got the boys both a hiking/fishing hat this year just like their dad's.  I love that they wore them every day:)

Day 3, we took a drive up Route 16, because we have never been that way and we could explore part of the Dead River and Maybe, see a moose.  I got this shot and totally overexposed it  by accident near an old one room school house.  Love their expressions.

And we did see a moose while we were driving there.  Then we had our picnic lunch down by the river.  We walked an ATV trail for a while and then headed back and fished in the River and threw sticks and rocks for the dog.

I love this shot....It's just so them.  It's hard to believe it's been years since anyone was carried in a backpack on a hike.  And we've hiked a lot.  (15 miles on the AT when Trevor was 8 weeks old) I love that they picked up little bits and pieces of the outdoors to put into their "collection jars" we started this little tradition last year.  

And I love this shot and they are so into Fishing when their Dad just isn't.  We got them all ice cream in town on the way home., Trevor and I split an Oreo Hurricaine (like a blizzard), it was yummy:)

But if there is one thing their Dad IS into, it's campfires, kayak rides in the morning while Mommy was still sleeping (large coffee in hand)  and cooking amazing meals.  The campfires and BBQ's  (mostly in the rain this time:(),  scary stories,  Smores, and stargazing were AMAZING!

They Helped cook dinner,... we had BBQ chicken, Salmon, hot dogs or steak complete with tomato caprese salad and corn EVERY night.

And they helped clean up :)  No Dishwasher here:)

Thursday it rained. We drove an hour to see a movie.  That just seemed wrong, to drive an hour to see a movie when we were supposed to be camping.  We had lunch at a little Panini shop, which took FOREVER, but Luckily we had forever.  The Movie Theater only took cash, but Luckily we had cash.  WE saw Diary of A Whimpy Kid Dog Days.  It was pretty funny. In the movie, the little brother has a blanket called "tinky".  It was so old  it was held together with "raisins and boogers".  After the movie, I said, "Lucas....the blanket is kind of like your car seat"  Lucas laughed and said, "ha, Ha, no Mom....there are NO raisins..."  LOL!

Every Morning, I made  Lucas ,  Trevor and I Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream and they fought over who got to sit up at the TWO bar stools.  Eventually,  we found a makeshift third stool and Breanna would not eat her breakfast until her brothers were taken care of and in their respective seats.  Love her....always caring about her brothers :) Josh made some amazing big breakfasts with BACON!

One of the Highlights of the whole trip was when we rented a boat for the day out on Mooselookmeguntic lake.  Our First boat had water in the gas line, so we had to get towed back to shore.  We ended up with a pontoon boat which we liked better anyway.  The kids each took a turn "driving" the boat which they LOVED.

After several attempts, we found our own private beach for the day.  It's totally been a dream of mine to relive this childhood memory when we used to do this EVERYDAY that we were camping. We swam, we had our picnic lunch, we changed in and out of our bathing suits without seeing another soul.  I even brought a book.   Just awesome.  

Love this shot....Since I'm never in pictures.  Just swum in hair and all.

Saturday, we golfed. Believe it or not, there was a VERY remote nine hole Par three where you left a donation in a barrel in order to play.  And Yes, the very routy nine- some that arrived with two thirty packs of Coors light, we let them play through.  

Bre even played some.

And we got this shot, while waiting for some other guys to play through.  Just might be the Christmas card this year.  Just in Case you were wondering about my hat. I've always wanted a farmer hat, and Josh bought me one this year.  And Yes, those ARE falling leaves!

If you asked the boys what their favorite part was, they would say the Kayaking (and not writing all their memories down in their journals like I wanted them to do.) Or discovering how to play the Game of Life.  (Cabin comes complete with games!) But Kayaking was what they are asking to do every second of the day when we are not our on an adventure.  This year for the first time we were able to just say "go!" and let them do it on their own.  

They often boated their way over to the dock and swam, even when temperatures weren't warm enough for the adults to swim.    

If you asked Bre what her favorite part was, she would say, getting a turn at golf, sleeping in the same room with the "boys" in the bunkhouse or watching "the boys" (they are pretty fun to watch). Plus this Girl can Dance Party to Party Rock it like it's nobody's business.  I'm so glad I have someone to teach me the value of a good Dance Party.   Bre likes (tolerates) adventure, but it's hard for her being away from home.  Most of the time, she just rolled with it, however.  She craves her routine and sometimes we just had to cave and let her have her favorite i Pad break. 

And at night,she would say she was tired and ask to go to bed (EARLY).  It's just hard to hold it all together when you are out of routine and away from home.  We were happy that she knew enough to take care of herself in this way (and tell us what she needed!).  REAL progress.

As for me, my favorite was the sunset cruise we took every night on the pond, evenings by the campfire, eating outside as much as possible, and watching the stars (AMAZING!) laying on the dock that last night.  The only thing to think about was being together and what our next adventure and our  meal was going to be.  

Vacation well done.  Until next year.....We'll miss you Hackney Cabin.  

And coming home?  I do so love coming home, yes.  To moving all our furniture back, killing the yellow jackets that decided to make a nest in the front walkway, weeding the garden, mowing the lawn,  unpacking the car, LAUNDRY, organizing and finding out about more school changes for next year (UGH!), work .........and Blogging, yep, I'll get to that. When I come down from the cloud nine that this vacation put me on:)