The Cabin

The cabin...a retreat we love to get away to as much as possible as a family. Unfortunately it only happens a few times a year. It is located in Island Park, Idaho which is approximately 5 hours away from home. Remote? Yes. Running water? No. Even though there is an outhouse for the bathroom, we love every minute of it.

Liam loves to bring his "toys" to ride around on. Kate's quickly becoming a big fan too.

Kate loves to roast "smarshmellows"



Here's Eli at the mill pond doing what he does best...catching frogs.

A broader view of the mill pond and there's some of the kids off in the distance beginning their hunt for frogs.

Liam was really determined this trip to catch some fish. Honestly, the mill pond is probably the least likely location to be catching any fish...but it's fun anyway.

I'm not sure how Kate does it but take a look at her feet! Let's zoom in on the next pic to see a close-up.

YIKES!!!

Liam and Sam killing some time stacking cards

The cabin trip is one of the few times of the year that all of the games get broken out-this one became a quick favorite...Ligretto

Time for tye-dye t shirts. Here's the "before" shot.

A little help from Mom

It's kind of a weird process for tye dyeing: Just grab your white t shirt, wrap it up with rubber bands in several spots and spray it with random colors of dye.

Voila! The finished product turns out pretty dang cool.

...even for the newest member of the family. Here's Kirk, Ellie and Andrew and their new baby boy "Will".

Looks like someone's had a little experience.

Like I mentioned, Liam was bound and determined to have this trip be all about the fishing. He spent about 3 weeks prior, arranging and prepping his tackle box. We surprised him with a new pole and fishing vest for a pre-birthday present. He looks like a seasoned fisherman in this pic.

These pictures are the day that just Liam and I went down to the "Coffee Pots" fishing hole. It was so much fun watching Liam enjoy every part of the process. Within about 10 minutes he had his first bite.

I think I'm going to get this picture blown up to be a mural on one of our big walls....he couldn't be happier. This shot is priceless.

He could have stayed all day long.

We fished for about 3 hours that morning. Don't you love the shot here? Nice fishing chair, oh, and gotta love the bright red athletic pants, eh?

Wrapping up the fishing trip

Harley cooling down in the grass.

The Cheney family left a little early but Casey and Emma stayed with us for more fun.

This was a contest to see who could stay in the freezing water the longest....I believe it was a tie between Eli and Casey.

We announced that we would buy a treat for anyone who dunked their head under the water. Liam was the first to do it-he was so excited about the contest that he forgot to take his shirt off first.

Here's a huge toad that the kids found by the water.

They thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

Liam wanted to try his hand at some photography for a while so we let him take the camera for a bit.

Playin' around

This was the night before we had to come home. All of the kids had begged to go fishing just one more time, including Kate. Here we are on the path to the "Coffee Pots" again.

A happy fisher girl

Eli was diggin' it too.

Chloe had a good attitude for fishing even though she got a couple of bites but no catches.

Both Liam and Kate got a kick out of removing the hook from the fish and also "cleaning" the fish. Kate would poke the fish's eyeballs out while Liam would slice up it's belly. It was pretty gross to watch but they would just laugh and laugh (along with the "ewwwww sick"! every once in a while).

Here's the kids on the famous "Castle Rock" by the cabin just before we came home. Nothing really famous about it other than it's the biggest rock around the place to hang out on that the kids have played on since they were toddlers.

After dropping the Cheney girls off at their house, Eli wanted to see what it might be like to travel around inside the food cooler. We were all too warn out to care much at that point. It was a great trip with many, many great memories for all of us...can't wait to go back.