An autumn adventure from a few years back

I looked back to see if I've ever written about this adventure before, and I haven't -- at least not much.  I don't want to forget this wonderful adventure myself, so I'm going to post about it now.

In 2012 we received the delightful news that our daughter and son-in-law and four children, who live in faraway Nevada,  would be making an autumn visit to us here in New Hampshire.   We got busy making plans!

One plan we made was something that had seemed like an impossible dream to us.  For many years we have loved spending time at a small rented cabin on Back Lake in the Great North Woods of our state.  We had often thought how wonderful it would be if we could bring a number of our children and grandchildren here, but it would have necessitated several cabins and that seemed far beyond our means.

In spring 2012 we were staying at our favorite cabin and we mentioned our dream to the owner.  Now, on the same property are two large, beautiful log cabins that we'd never considered staying in; we felt they were completely out of our price range.   The owner took took a brochure and showed us that if we all stayed in the larger of those two cabins, we could probably afford to stay for a couple of nights. He even took us on a tour of the cabin so we could see for ourselves how there would be room for everyone.

After taking some time to pray and think more about it, we saw God work things out for us to book  the cabin for three nights, making it a long weekend.

So that's what we did!  Fifteen of us -- three couples and nine kids -- converged upon this lovely cabin on a perfect fall weekend.

The cabin as seen from the water

I can't possibly remember all that we did, but one thing was that we shared the meal planning and preparation.  We had pizza the first night, and for one meal we enjoyed waffles (cooked by Mr. T) and other breakfast treats.

Each night, one of the dads led family devotions for the group.   On Sunday morning, we were all able to attend a local church together.  What a blessing!

Little Micah, just 1 year old

And here with his aunt Carrie

Lots of time was spent in and about the various boats!  This is Emily.

Josiah

Julia

Lots of time spent at the fireplace as well!  Sam with his mommy and daddy

Auntie Jojo reads to many!

At the playground across the road!

Some posed family photos were taken as well.  Clay and Jo.

The two oldest grandgirls discovered a love for kayaking!

One of the things we did was to plan a simple little Christmas celebration at the cabin, since we never get to have Christmas all together.  We drew names and exchanged dollar-store gifts.  You can read about it on my Christmas blog here: A Mini Christmas.  That night, we had a sort of snack supper with appetizer=type foods.  We brought a string of lights and a mini Christmas tree, and for that meal I brought some Christmasy paper place mats.  It was so much fun!

Evenings were lovely too.  If you should be interested in hearing about a lesson God taught me one evening on this trip, here it is: Lift Up Your Eyes.  It's a lesson that has stayed with me.

And our son-in-law Jim showed us a place he had discovered with amazing views of foliage.

The kids (and Carrie) enjoyed this ledge at the top of the road.

How thankful we are that we could take this family time together.  Even though it was a few years back, we haven't forgotten what a blessing it was to all of us!