When my girls were 2 and 4 we started camping with another family who had boys the same age. Every year we’d head for two weeks to a provincial campground an hour away from home, and we’d have a blast. When the kids were 6 and 8 we added a mid-winter trip to the other family’s hunting cabin. It’s a three-room building with no running water, no central heating, and an antique wood stove. The place smells like a mixture of dead mice, wet dog (from hunting season), not enough showering, and an awful lot of Febreeze.
The outhouses in -20 weather are awfully exciting, especially when one’s 6-year-old daughter is afraid of going by herself because there might be spiders. In -20 weather. Then there was the time said daughter dropped the flashlight down the hole.
The place is so full of memories, and this year we ventured again, for four days between Christmas and New Year’s. The teens are all grown up, and we played board games, knit, read, hiked, and did a lot of eating. A LOT of eating.
I don’t know why I like the time away so much, except I think it’s the time away from being plugged in at all so that I can just concentrate on people. At home I’m always pulled to check my blog, or my Facebook, even when I should be spending time with family or hubby or someone else. I know what I SHOULD do, but it’s harder when there are so many distractions.
At the cabin there aren’t distractions.
This year we gave the kids a choice: a few days in a nice hotel, or the hunting cabin. They chose the place with friends, and outhouses.
I sometimes need that time away just to refocus. I’m proud of the fact that we got rid of our TV, but I often feel like I’ve just replaced it with our reliance on the internet. I need to be unplugged sometimes.
I’m back now, and I’m on the internet too much again. But it’s still fun to renew old friendships and just have fun playing board games and enjoying this beautiful creation. My girls have such a neat relationship with the two boys, too, since they’ve basically grown up together from childhood. So that’s why I did over my holidays, and I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too!
AWESOME!! That’s exactly what I want to do with my family! Well, indoor plumbing might be nice! I think it’s great your girls chose the cabin over a hotel – that speaks volumes about family traditions and relationships!
Thanks for the great blog I have really been anjoying it the last year. Wanted to let you know I started linking a few of your articles on Pinterest. Is that I ok? I give you credit and it links back to your blog. Let me know if that is a problem. Thanks and keep up the great work. Cindy
Cindy, I adore pinterest, and I’m getting a ton of traffic from there! So link all you want.
I LOVE doing that kind of thing too! We usually just go in summer though. My aunt & uncle own a piece of property in the valley, and they built a very simple cabin there. No running water, only a generator to power the refrigerator, and a nice woodstove to keep warm 🙂 We plan on taking our kids there for a couple nights this summer again, but we heard there several times per year just to spend the day.
Is that Dominion I see? What a fun game. 🙂
I love Dominion! And we bought one of the extensions, too, “Intrigue”, which I think is even better!
I just have to say that if you gave me the choice between a nice hotel or a hunting cabin, I wouldn’t have chosen the same as your kids! But it sounds like you had a fantastic time. Happy New Year!
I love that your girls CHOSE the rustic cabin. Says a lot about what happens there 😀
And is it bad that I’m cracking up about the stove? Is that duct tape and a bungy cord holding the oven door shut? LOVE IT!
Julie
You betcha! Gotta love bungee cords.
These pictures are beautiful. Some of my own happiest childhood memories are playing in the snow with my family, whether it be a winter walk, cross country skiing, snow fort/man building or tobogganing, we always had so much fun and laughter. Add a cabin and time spent with close family friends, well, I agree. That’s pretty close to perfect 🙂
I feel the same way about our spring and fall camping get-aways on the Gulf. I love getting out of town and being able to unplug from everything for a few days. Love the pics, Sheila. They actually made me cry! We are from Upper Michigan but have lived in Florida for 15 years and I remember many wonderful days playing outside in the snow. I am so excited to go home next week and experience a little bit of winter!