monday at the madhouse // weekend in the woods

What a weekend! We had Ezra's first visit to the cabin, which was far more successful than we had thought. It's not that we are "glass-half-empty" kinds of people, but we were pretty realistic about an extremely mobile baby in a cabin that is far from child-proof, a dock with no barriers to the water, a boat that is usually full of spiders, and grounds that are surrounded by poison ivy.But! We also have a lake full of splashable water, a fantastic raft for the kid, a freezer full of popsicles, a bunch of new toys, loads of hummingbirds and an amazingly patient dog who entertains us all when she's not getting stung by wasps. We also have wonderful games of cards and audiobooks to keep us laughing, and that's not even mentioning the amazing amount of naps we all took.So overall, it was a great weekend. Would I have wanted several more days of it? Ehhhh... nah. Three was just about right. Next year will we stay longer? I hope so. More photos of the vacation below.Soon after we arrived, we could hear thunder in the distance and the sky darkened. Seriously, the universe was telling us, "You have arrived at the most peaceful place you know, now go to sleep." The storms were wonderful.Here, the savages try to figure out how to get outdoors as the rain begins to fall.And this was the sky at about four pm. Yeah. It was awesome. (This is the view from our bedroom at the cabin. Many, many photos are taken from this spot as I am the ultimate lazybones when I'm up north). You know how you can tell? If you look real close, you can see the screen from the window in the shot. #LAZYBONESAnd this was that same view around 8:30 pm, when the weather settled down, but still left us with pretty clouds.The next day, we headed out to the dock. While the humans sunned / played on the docked pontoon boat, we watched Magda explore the shoreline. She ran into a flowering bush and then ran out swatting at her face which had... bees? wasps? creatures? stuck to it. She got them all off, but then had four large welts for the rest of the day. You can see two of them above. See where you think she's furrowing her eyebrows on her forehead? Nope. Those are stings/bites.Besides playing by the lake, there were many naps. Like this one.And my-oh-my look at that nap hair. That right there is just like his late Grandpa Sookie's hair.There was also splashing in the lake. That was super fun until Ezra began to cup the water in his hands and drink it. This was about an hour after we had watched Magda pee in the lake. So.... we put him back in the boat. Blech. This year, the cabin owners added a hummingbird feeder, and we had them all weekend! I love the sound of their wings...Another lovely sunset...A cool birch tree spotted on our hike...Yup, hikes. More naps... And that's about it! A lovely time indeed.