3rd Annual Cabin Vacation

I love this tradition that we have started. I especially love that we started it while our kids are little and can grow up with these memories. This was our third year to give our parents a weekend stay in a beautiful cabin, with {most of} the family, as their Christmas gift from us. 

Our group was missing a few important people this year. My dad is up in New York working as an insurance adjuster for the Sandy storm, so we were really sad that he couldn't be part of this family vacation. Caleb's brother and his wife, along with their 15 month old son, weren't able to join us at the last minute. We were really looking forward to having all the cousins together for a weekend, but maybe they'll make it next year. 

In years past, there has also always been at least one non-family member come with us {usually a boyfriend or girlfriend of one of my siblings). But this year, it ended up being all family and it was wonderful! Even with a few family members missing and no "extra" people, we still had 10 adults and 5 kids: my little family, my mom, all 5 brothers, 1 sister, 1 sister-in-law, 1 nephew and both of Caleb's parents. 

With that many people under one roof, it's a good thing the roof covered 4,600 sq. feet with 18 beds and 5.5 bathrooms. It also had a game room with a pool table and foose ball table. We loved the cabins we stayed in the first and second years, but they were booked before we knew what date worked for our group. We have agreed that this cabin has been the best out of the three! Here are some some pictures of the beautiful cabin that was nestled in the woods.

Just inside the front door.

 

I loved this kitchen!

Game room.

This was the bedroom we stayed in. Looked at that bed! Notice there is a stool, because the top of the bed was nearly 4 feet high!

The cousins had a fun bath in this tub! Hudson splashed out a gallon of water, Keifer just wanted to play with the running water and Savannah kept busy by washing both the boys. It was so cute!

Nice and clean... so tired and ready for bed!

 

Friday afternoon, the moms and babies went on a "nature walk". {Excuse some of these picture qualities. I'm not sure what is happening to my little camera.}

Savannah collected a ton of pine cones, rocks, sticks and leaves.

 

After 2 years of doing this vacation, I got smart and decided to "assign" meals to each family rather than do a big grocery shopping trip as soon as we were at the cabin. This saved so much time in shopping and meal preparation. It helped us feel more on vacation than a normal day at home cooking and cleaning.

Saturday morning, we all went to a nearby place that had horse back riding, a train ride and play ground. We all rode the train first and the kids loved it! We even saw several deer.

Then, part of our group went horse back riding. The actual trail riding part wasn't as good as last year, but the weather was at least nicer and we still had a good time.

 These were the riders. Yes, even Keifer rode with Joy and did great!

And while we were riding horses for 45 minutes, the rest of the group took Savannah and Hudson to play on the play ground.

 

We spent the evenings reading books, playing games and just hanging out. Grandma {my mom} brought some fun new things for the kids to play with and just having Parker and Landon to play with for a whole weekend made them so happy!

Savannah thought it was awesome that her "bed" was on the floor in the same room as Caleb and I. How sweet are these pictures of Caleb reading her bible story to her one night?

And people without kids got more sleep than those of us with little ones. =)

All the kids did SO well and everyone had a great time! We're already looking forward to next year and have decided that we'll start the vacation a day earlier so we have more time there.  Hopefully the entire Braddock / Schilli clan will be able to be there! It is such a fun tradition and I can only imagine how much more fun in will be in the years to come. As there are more kids added to the family and they get older. {No, I'm not pregnant.} =)