Mmmmmm... Bruce grilling kabobs. Best meal of the weekend!
My boy and "Flash" Lacey checking out the turtle passing through.
Everyone gathered on the deck for a relaxing afternoon snack break.
Our lovely girls out tubing.
My youngest is a real hotdogger, hamming it up in the tube.
Two little pups disappointed at being left behind. 
Good old Dad taking the children tubing. 
The girls and I went out for coffee at Mooselips Java Joint. How can you resist a place with a name like that?! We always go up to the cabin for Memorial weekend. I really love it up there. This year was even more special because a few family members and my daughters' special friend, Rosa, (an exchange student from Spain who heads home next week) were able to join us for the long weekend.
My dear husband has spent countless hours working at building us a lovely northern getaway over the past thirteen or so years and we are all blessed for it. It all began when he decided we should go shopping for lake property on our honeymoon. Instead of heading somewhere exotic or taking a cruise we drove about two and a half hours north and looked at all sorts of lake frontage. Some was good, most was not. I think the realtors did not take us seriously because we were so young and so they sent us out (alone) to look at a lot of junky, swampy land. In the end we discovered the land we ended up buying only because I suggested we drive down an unexplored road after looking at yet another disappointing mucky, swampy lot.
We found a lot for sale at the end of this little dirt road and we really liked it and decided to make an offer. A few months later it was ours! So much for telling my husband that only "old people" own lake cabins. I'm glad he didn't listen to me because we were fortunate enough to buy before the prices went through the proverbial roof. It took a few years for us to pay it off and then we began saving to build the cabin. Every extra penny we had we put away until eight years later we had enough money to put up an unfinished shell. Mike spent roughly the next five years working on finishing everything off and we paid as we went. I guess that's one benefit of taking your time!
Before the cabin was built we camped on the land. I remember the very first time we camped: Memorial weekend of 1991. It rained all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We were all soaked, our gear was soaked and our dog was soaked. We were ready to pack it up and head home when my younger brother said that no matter what anybody else did, he was staying. I don't know why we changed our minds, but we did and everyone else stayed too. That night and the next day ended up being beautiful! :) We were rewarded for our persistence.
We've got a lot of fun memories from many weekends spent up north and I look forward to creating many more. When I hear the loons calling at night I truly feel as though it is a bit of Heaven here on Earth!
