Memorial Day at the cabin 2010!

We love our annual trip up to the cabin for Memorial Day weekend! We all missed last year because Mom and Kristi were down in Arkansas for Lily's graduation -- so it felt good to be back for the long weekend here! Martin left Thursday night for his trip down to the Bay Area to visit Aura, Bri, Denise Elayne, Tita, Bayardo, Juan Carlos and Karlita, plus all his friends and extended family. He loves this time away -- we miss him! -- but it is so good for his soul to be back down there with his true lifelong friends and his Bay Area family. He misses them all so much. Anyway, I took Friday off and was able to take the girls to school. I went grocery shopping and got everything ready for the trip up to Pend O'Reille Lake. I got the girls to bed early (by 6:40 pm) and finished packing and organizing for our early morning drive up to the cabin. The girls were so excited and woke up at 5am. We all got ready and were out the door by 6:45 and met up with Aunt Kristi by 7am at Fred Meyer. We arrived at the cabin by 8:30am on Saturday morning! Here is what we saw as we drove the last few miles to the cabin -- it was such a beautiful sight I had to stop and take a picture of the cows!

It was a rainy and cold day, but I had brought the girls' bikes because they really love to ride around the yard -- and of course they love to ride "the loop". The rain didn't stop them at all from having fun -- it's a good thing that I brought their heavy coats and sweatshirts!
Lisa and the boys arrived a bit later and the kids were all so excited to be together again! They are such good playmates and friends!

Because it was basically raining all day long, we did spend much of our time in doors just chatting, eating, and playing games. Here is Grandma and Aunt Kristi playing Dominoes with Noah and Sofia.

Another reason that we love this weekend together with everyone, is that we get to celebrate sweet Noah's birthday! He turns 5 on Monday, May 31st, so Lisa brought all the supplies for an awesome Sponge Bob party! He's so adorable! Happy Birthday, Noah!

Here's a shot of Mike, Kristi, Mom and Jay just relaxing....

Here's LaNae and Rusty -- the kids love Aunt LaNae and they really love playing with Rusty, too!

More rain forced the kids to come in for frequent breaks -- we all had a good time playing Sofia's favorite game of DVD Bingo!

I love this picture -- it's on the long stretch of "the loop" riding their bikes. It's so funny to think that Sofia began riding the loop with her trike, then her bike with training wheels, and now her bike with no training wheels!

Mikah and Sofia found these little white eggs in the grass....they came running in to get me and told me to bring my camera for a picture! :-)

The cousins

The cousins -- again!

Audriana 7 1/2, Ryan 9 1/2

Noah 5, Sofia 4 1/2

Mikah....2....and so cute!

Mike and Jackie left Saturday afternoon after lunch, but it was fun to see them for those few hours! The rest of us all stayed the night and woke up to more rain, although, we did have a few more breaks in the rain so we were able to get out and walk a little bit on the loop. LaNae left to Priest Lake mid morning, and then Kristi had to leave arount noon because she was going to see Carrie Underwood that night. My camera battery died that afternoon and I didn't get any pictures of the kids down at the water throwing rocks into lake. We took advantage of the break in the rain and drove down so they could play. It was great. It was sad when Lisa and the boys had to leave after lunch, but I know they had such a fun time -- and it is always fun for us adults to watch them create these memories that will last a lifetime. We all rested after they left -- it was pouring outside -- and Sofia slept for over 2 hours. They were tuckered out! The girls and I were the only ones left and had a good time with Mom and Jay for one more night. Monday we woke up to more rain -- and it didn't stop! We had breakfast, then decided to get packed up and got on the road just after lunch. It was a special weekend for all of us -- but we missed Martin a lot!