A Cabin in the Woods

Check out this amazing project my Dad, Bill (the neighbor with the saw mill) and Ryan have been working on for over a year...a little cabin down in the woods.  This is a much upgraded version of the cabin we had at the lake when I was a kid, but that's where the original idea started.  During COVID Dad had a dream about getting all the grandkids back together for a week and him, Ryan and Andy building this cabin for the kids.  It took way more time than a week, but it's so amazing.  

Bill milled all of the boards at his mill and even donated the windows he replaced in his real house for the build out.  He told Dad that he always had a dream of making something similar for his grandkids but they grew up before he could do it and so he wanted to help make it a reality for ours.  He's a great guy and he's really become a great friend of the family over the years since my parents moved to their house in Cedarville.  

Long before the cabin was close to being done the kids started building it out in their minds.  They had a TV, a bunk bed, a table with chairs, handmade curtains, maybe even a toilet planned for in here.  Their spatial awareness isn't great, but in the end, we really could fit a lot in here, especially when we decided to add a loft space in the peaked part of the roof.  You can see it in the picture below.

I'll have to grab some more pictures when we get it fully decorated and ready for the kids to play in, but they are so excited to have Kayden and Lincoln out and play in the cabin.  They'll all be together for Thanksgiving and Christmas so there are lots of fun times ahead!  And....I happen to know Mom and Dad have some surprises planned that they haven't unveiled yet.

Halloween

 

We went for a group costume again this year.  I can't take credit for the idea, this one was all Jamie.  We introduced them to Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza last November when we went on an adults only wine weekend in southern Illinois.  Jamie had the great idea that it could be our costume for the year and you know I'm all for a group costume where I get to wear a warm adult onesie!

Our costume made no sense until we were all together, and even then it only worked if people knew the game.  But honestly, I'm good.  Ryan love a clever costume that makes people stop and think, and this one was definitely that type of costume.

Beth and Patrick always knock it out of the park with their commitment to the family costume.  They let the kids pick and rotate each year which daughter gets to choose.  This year was Ellie's turn and she picked Nightmare Before Christmas.  Somehow I totally missed their group costume, but it was super cute.  They even had the dog in on it for awhile.

Everyone that grew up in the Midwest has stories about how bi-polar the weather can be this time of year.  It could be 80, it could be snowing.  This year we got the snowing option....though not nearly as much as a few years ago where there was probably 6 inches on the ground.  You can tell in these photos that the flakes are just starting to fly, but by the end of the night, there was probably an inch or two on the grassy surfaces.  I'm not ready for winter yet, but the first glimpse of flakes had everyone excited.  Hazel wanted to know if she should wear snow pants to school that day - sweet girl!

We always have a great time trick or treating with this group.  We don't get together the 12 of us very often - it's usually just on Halloween.  But we always have a good time and the Rasmussen's are so nice to host us every year.  

Until next year!

1 Family x 12 (October)

 

I'll get our full group costume pictures up next, but, for now, our family photo for October.  I love these humans!

Halloween Prep

 

Sometimes the one day the holiday actually occurs on, just isn't quite enough to thoroughly celebrate and so, we pack the fun into the days prior.  The same is true for Halloween.  We've been doing pumpkin hunts (plastic pumpkins stuffed like Easter Eggs) for a long long time.  Since a Halloween when I was stuck traveling and wasn't going to be around for trick or treating.  It's a tradition the kids request each year and we've always figured out a way to make it work.

This year we decided to do pumpkin carving and a scavenger hunt around Jamie's neighborhood to really round out the fun.  Add in matching holiday pj's and you've got my favorite kind of party!

I bet I haven't carved a pumpkin in more than a few years.  It always feels like a bigger job than it really is and I'm usually happy to just help the kids do theirs.  But Ryan insisted we needed 4 to make the porch look even, and Jamie did the hard work of scooping this one out for me...so I carved one too.  

Fall Crafts

 

We've been home a few weekends in a row lately and it's done wonders for my crafting!  I feel like I'm getting back in the groove after a long summer of creating very little craft wise.  Up first, my second National Park hat - Glacier.  Isn't it so pretty?  I really like this one!

I also logged a few plane rides over the last two months (work has been wild) and you know what's a great thing to do while you are sitting on a plane?  Knitting.  What's not so great?  Colorwork knitting which means you are holding a handful of different colors of yarn (and, in one case, I dropped a ball and it rolled, all the way down the aisle, to the way back of the plane and every person in every row behind me had to then roll up my yarn a little bit and hand it forward - it was quite the entertainment!).  

This second hat was for Denali and proved much more difficult than the other's I've knit.  I pulled it back three times until I got the green floats right.  I'm glad I did, but this one cost me much longer than needed to get it knit up.

Next up, I finally got the binding on three similar quilts I shared earlier this year.  There are three total quilts here, two in the exact same color way - just different backing, binding and quilting patterns.  One of the pastel rainbow ones is already headed out to Baby Ivy - Sam and Juan's new baby that was born a few months ago.   I missed getting it done before she arrived, but having it in the end is all that matters.  

Oh, and, I started a new cowl pattern too.  It's knit out of the finest yarn I've ever worked with and on the smallest needles I've ever used.  These are a size one.  The smallest I'd knit with before this is a size 3, for a lap blanket and let me just tell you, that that puppy took FOREVER to knit because of the small needle size.  I expect this cowl to be slow going, but isn't that yard beautiful?  It has the most beautiful deep gemstone color and maybe my favorite part is the little flecks of blue and dark purple throughout.  I think this is going to be really beautiful when it's finished.

This third quilt is the same pattern but a much more vivid.  I don't know who this quilt is going to just yet, but I think it could be used for an adult or a baby.  I like having a finished quilt or two on hand for gifting when I don't have a 6 month turn around time.  I've so enjoyed making this pattern that I've made a total of 4 of these at this point and I might keep making more.  They come together pretty quickly, especially when you can find a pre-cut jelly roll in a fabric you like.  

The backing on this one is my favorite of all three.  The colors in in complement the front and I just love all the bright pink.

I'm reluctant to hit post on my "Fall craft" post in mid-October, there's still a lot of Fall left in the year, but, with 6 total projects in this post, and that teeny tiny cowl on my needles, this might in fact be all the things I finish this fall.   

Nelson Dewey Camping - our last trip of 2023

And, just like that, we've got an entire 6 months of camping in the books.  It feels like just weeks ago that I was posting about our first trip of the year, in early May...and now, here we are with the winterized camper sitting ready to be taken out to Freeport for winter storage.  We really do love camping and spending our summers on the road exploring new places.  This year we logged a lot of miles and hit up a few new places we've never been.  Ryan and I counted it up a few weeks ago and we spent just under 45 days in the camper this summer.  

We camped in a total of three states - Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and put on more miles than I think I'd like to count.  But we made lots of memories, ate more 'smores than we've ever eaten...used the Blackstone to cook big meals and dragged the solo stove along to make fires wherever we wanted (not just in the oddly placed pits at the sites).  

Our last trip of the year took us to Nelson Dewey State Park - a smallish campground right on the Mississippi in south western Wisconsin.  The park was pretty small, and the hiking was limited, but we found a geo-cache, explored the campground and probably most importantly, got to hang out with our favorite people!   We camped with Jamie and Zach and also the McCarthys - how did I not get a single picture with that whole group!?  

 It was a short trip - we arrived Saturday late morning and left again Sunday late morning but we enjoyed the time we got.  Oh, and we visited Potosi Brewery - we'd never been.  The weather was great, I mean, check out those sunny photos!  We were probably a week or two head of the best leaves of the year, but we've had a freeze warning the last three nights, so I'm glad the camper is fully winterized and we've got that job behind us.  

Until spring!  We'll be camping again in early April for the solar eclipse - we've already got it booked!  We'll be camping again before we know it. 

1 Family x 12 (September)

 

Technically we took this photo in October, not September, but I'm vowing to grab another for October at Halloween.  Thanks to Jamie for getting one that even features Copper - he's the worst at looking at the camera and sitting patiently, but we got one!