THIS Holiday Weekend

Last year, we skipped over to Fall Creek Falls State Park on MLK weekend.  So it wasn't surprising this year when Josh got the itch to skip away for another cabin retreat.  Something about his state employee 50% off discount is irresistible to that man.  I was all ho-hum about packing up and going, but when our friends, the Tuckers, begged to have Lasa again for the weekend, it seemed like we should take advantage of the free time.  So, we skipped over to Cedars of Lebanon State Park for the weekend with only one thing in mind ... relax!  Relax as in sleep, play, eat, chill, watch, laugh, wander.  And all those things without interruption.  Ahhhhhhhh ...

This park, QUITE close to home.

This cabin, the last available for the weekend, was our home away from home.  It also happened to be the handicap cabin, which Josh can thank now for my newest wish list home improvement line item ...  I want a nice tall handicap toilet in my house. #RealLife

This view from the living room and kitchen.

I enjoyed all this sunny space inside, because it was super freezing outside.

Our room was downstairs.  The kids had a room and a loft upstairs right this way.  

This fire was warm and cozy while I did all the things I brought to do - read, crochet, organize my recipe book, balance the checkbook, watch football, and catch up on some Bible journaling.

Anna was so keen on trying out her new single-person tent, Josh set that bad boy up in her room.  So she didn't even sleep on her bed; she slept in her sleeping bag, on a mattress, in the tent.  And she did this quite happily.

This was our movie set up both nights.  Josh brought a projector and we viewed them theater style.  :)  We surprised the kids with letting them see the fourth Harry Potter movie at last. So fun!

Besides this, my people GORGED themselves on their newest hobby, Minecraft.  Noah has never had interest in the game before.  But Josh introduced it as something they could all three play together and not a one of my people has looked back since.  THEY LOVE IT and are slightly obsessed.  I let them play this weekend with no time restrictions.  So they played, and played, and played. I have some hilarious sound bites from their sessions that will make up a post of its own here soon.  Stay tuned.

When they needed a break from all the zombies and creepers and cows and wheat and such, they went for short hikes and jaunts around the park to see what they could see.  A stuffed coyote and eagle were bought as souvenirs from the nature center on site. Trees got climbed; I spotted this set of cubs during lunch.

Several board games got played, including this new to us dice game.  It is as simple as they come and yet so fun! Left Right Center!  We played until everyone won at least once.  Anna won a bunch of times before that happened, that lucky thing!

I meant to try my hand at making some granny squares over the weekend, but I went and left the pattern in the printer at home and internet was quite awful that far out so Pinterest was unavailable to me.   Instead, I whipped myself up this handy little bookmark for my current read, which is really good!

Besides all this, Anna enjoyed her junk food of choice, Noah never once took his new hat off his head, and it got so cold that our car almost wouldn't start the morning we checked out.  

And that concludes how another MLK holiday weekend retreat with the Browns went down.  This tradition is quite growing on me!