Family getaway

Last weekend, we had a little family getaway to the Pocono mountains. A friend of ours offered us his cabin and our day-to-day lives have been so crazy between Patrick's work, taking care of the boys and keeping up with housework that we thought it might be nice to do a little retreat of sorts. Not so many rules, barely any chores. Just quiet, fun time together as a family.

Or so we thought.

We arrived at the cabin on Friday afternoon, after a late start and driving almost five hours in the rain. We were all a bit cold and cranky, but when we got there, we seemed to unwind instantly.

The cabin was beautiful.

I pictured Patrick and I sitting out on the porch in the morning with some hot coffee,

with a view of the lake through the trees and lots of wildlife around.

Can't you just hear the boys mocking me for thinking such a thing?

The inside of the cabin was just as beautiful, but as you may be able to tell, the loft-style sleeping arrangements made it difficult to realize my other dream of Patrick and I putting the boys to bed and sitting on the couch by that cozy fire watching a movie or talking.

Because all day Friday had torrential downpouring rain, we did a lot of this

Candyland and Go Fish!

The combination of the pounding rain, the metal roof, the beds at ceiling level, and the open floor plan meant that Patrick and I each got about an hour of sleep Friday night. And that not all together - it was more like 10 minutes here and there up and down with the boys who couldn't sleep because of the rain, or fell out of their beds, or had bad dreams. It was rough.

Saturday morning, we discovered that overnight, we'd also had some rodent visitors who'd helped themselves to the food on the counter (shame on me for leaving it out). Tired and grossed out by the discovery, we determined to make the best of our day.

The boys wanted to take some pictures of their own, so I let them use the camera. Here are Jack's photos, straight out of the camera - no editing from me. I love to see how he chooses his shots.

First, our family






Then, of course, Lammy



(I love that he kept trying to get the right angle. . . and that in the last picture, Lammy looks like he's had enough.)



Next, his backpack and toys



Then, some other random shots:

My "red sweatshirt," which made me cry laughing when I actually saw the picture



Daddy's bagel (one of the few that wasn't nibbled by the mice)



And I love this one of his and Patrick's feet



PJ's turn to try his hand at it with some of his favorite toys



and the deer head which both fascinated and appalled the two of them.



Finally, the rain stopped and the boys were excited to see some sun peek through the clouds

So I dressed the older boys and took them for a walk by the lake while Patrick and Thomas napped.

It was good to stretch our legs

but it was COLD - sweatshirts were not nearly enough - and we had to dodge a lot of puddles.

The lake was beautiful, though


Then, we hopped in the car and headed to the nearby town of Honesdale, which has a train and some shops and, we figured, dry places to walk and let the boys burn off some energy.

On the way, we passed a road with a familiar name.

The boys loved seeing the train, and sitting on a tractor parked on the sidewalk


That night, we made a fire in the fire pit and the boys got a kick out of cooking their own dinner for the first time as they roasted hot dogs on sticks over the fire. Then, of course, we had to have s'mores for dessert.




We were all in bed by 7 that night and even though I'd put all the food in the refrigerator, we could hear the mice all over the house that night. They ran back and forth along the rafters and I even saw a furry nose peek through a space between the wood planks of the ceiling while I was lying in bed. They chewed holes in everything that had ever touched food, including the baby's bottle nipples, the rubber tips of his spoons, and some of the bottles for Patrick's medicines. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night either, though the boys slept really well.

Maybe it was a bit city slickeresque of us to expect anything different, but more than a little grossed out by the mouse droppings that were everywhere - in the coffee pot, even - we decided to pack up early on Sunday and go out to breakfast on our way home.

Thankfully, the boys have become pretty good travelers, despite the fact that two relatively new potty trainers require lots of pit stops. And hey, they look cool too!

It was a beautiful drive home on Sunday with clear skies and gorgeous fall colors. The boys especially enjoyed seeing all these wind mills which dotted the landscape for a good part of the ride.

The trip might sound like a total loss, but it really wasn't. We got to spend a lot of time together, and Patrick and I talked a lot in the car during the drives, something that we don't get to do much of for extended periods of time these days. Plus, it really helped me to appreciate our home (and our beds) and our family, and want to make being together here special too.