VACATION!

Mike's brilliant Grandparents built a cabin at Panguitch Lake the year Mike was born. It has been a retreat for all of his family members ever since. Mike has many memories playing there with his cousins, fishing with his Grandpa, and hiking with his family. In the short 9 years that I have been part of the family I have grown to love this place too....and so have our kids. It was sad being there without Mike's Grandma. The cabin is full of her touch and we missed her presence a lot. I have posted a billion pictures, so good luck making it through.

We left Friday and came home today (Sunday). The pictures show most of what we did, but I'll just quickly write a few other things that were not digitally documented :) We went through the kitchen when we got there and cleaned it out. We reorganized it and got rid of a few things. We also set up our kids old crib in place of one that has been there for years. It was great helping out and getting some spring cleaning done. On Saturday morning I went running by the water. It was windy so the first half was not very fun. The way back was a lot easier and I was able to look at the beautiful lake. The water level is SO high this year! I really enjoyed being outside in the fresh air. One of our favorite things to do while there is ride the ATV- which we have somehow named the Gator. It seats 6 buckled in with a lifted back seat. We are able to take rides around the lake and just have fun. We always end up eating a few bugs, but who cares. More protein right? Not sure Anna likes it all that much, but the rest of us LOVE it. Enough of the writing....enjoy the pictures.

The view from the deck. Beautiful! The smell of the trees makes it that much more amazing.
First thing Brayden did was get a barbie car from upstairs to 'ride'.

Really roughing it- the boys playing Nintendo 64.

Our crib set up in place of the old one.

Brayden's version of a s'more. Just eat the marshmallow off the stick. No roasting necessary.

Yummmmm...

The deck is up very high and Mike is trying to save our sons life in this picture.

There were two nests. One was empty and the other had two eggs. Tyson was THRILLED to find nests, but we told him not to touch. Well, the temptation was too great and as Mike and I were doing various tasks, Tyson brought Mike a blue egg! Yes, he climbed to the cover of the deck and took an egg out of the nest. Lucky for us (and the baby birds), the momma bird came back and didn't reject the eggs.

The family owns the lot next to the cabin and built a small cabin for the kids to play in along with a swing, sand box, and a "trail". They love it.

First trip fishing! We rented a boat and got all of the gear from the basement. The kids were so excited! Tyson was GREAT, Anna got bored half way through, and Bray loved every second (until he fell asleep!).

Brayden pretended to fish the whole time.

Ty fished and.......

......HE CAUGHT THE ONLY ONE OF THE DAY!

Brayden fell asleep with the pole in hand. It was hard to keep hold of him when the wind picked up and the waves were big and I couldn't believe he stayed asleep with the waves splashing and the boat bouncing.

Grandma and Matthew came up on Saturday and played with us. We found a bunch of old crafts and went through everything to see what we could salvage. The kids had fun creating and Grandma and Matthew both joined in.

Mike spent some time on a couple puzzles. Tyson helped him with the first one.

These were our funny faces at dinner time :)

We had a great breakfast on Sunday morning, packed up, cleaned, and then went home after lunch. What a nice trip and a break from everything for a few days. As we left, Anna cried and asked why we couldn't just stay forever. I wished for the same thing- especially when we pulled into the 1oo+ degree weather here in St. George. Oh well....helps us appreciate the sweet things in life.