Day 6

      This was our last day at the cabin.  The plan was to pack, eat breakfast and get on the road.  There was a little extra excitement that morning, however, when a package of eggs (left on the stove and then the wrong burner was turned on) caught on fire and Mike saved the day by putting it out.  I was upstairs and I heard, "Fire! Fire!" and when I came down my aunt, grandma, and mom all told me how Mike had saved the day by grabbing the small fire extinguisher, which he, but not the rest of us, had noticed earlier.  My husband, the hero.  

      As we drove away from the cabin, Little Man sighed and said, "I already miss the cabin."  It was a wonderful family reunion and we were all a little sad to leave.  Of the three kids, however, Little Man was definitely the most disappointed, because the end of family reunion equaled the end of cousin time.  Every time we were just hanging out in the cabin, it felt as if I only had two children.  Little Man disappeared for hours at a time only emerging only when he needed something to eat or when the hide and seek game spilled into the room where the adults were. The kids especially loved the basement.  There was a pool table where he and Diego made up their own version of the game prompting him to ask me if we could get a pool table "but not the sticks."  There were also toys and a ping pong table which older cousins and uncles were always playing some sort of tournament on.  He played and played and played. Kiwi joined in the cousin fun at times, but seemed more comfortable to hang out where Mike and I (and of course Mason) were.  

 All five of these kiddos are going into first grade this year.  

A picture of the kids elementary school and younger minus the babies and those who weren't able to make it to the reunion.  

     We got on the road about 11:00 where we had about a six hour drive to get to our next destination which was Lake Couer de Lane with just our little family.  When we arrived at the hotel we of course immediately hit the pool.  We then went out to a yummy pizza place where we got to eat outside.  

   This guy was absolutely done with being strapped in or confined to any sort of seat for the day.  Luckily, there was a little tree surrounded by rocks right near our table.  These rocks were probably the highlight of Mason's Thursday.

   After dinner, we drove down to the water and walked along this awesome board walk.  It was gorgeous (poor Mason, I've noticed as I've went through the pics.  there is a lot of just partial shots of his head peaking out from the back pack).

Getting Mason to sleep that night was a little tricky.  In the first hotel, we had been able to move things around and put his port a crib behind a huge chair so he couldn't really see us.  At this hotel, however, that was not an option.  Luckily the big kids were wiped out and fell to sleep pretty easily.  Mason, however, kept standing up and peeking his little head over the top of his crib to see Mike and I.  The look on his face was a mixture of confusion/excitement/amusement at seeing Mommy and Daddy just a foot away from him.  He kept making us laugh which just prompted more standing up.  Eventually we had to go hang out in the bathroom for a little while because it was the only place he couldn't see us.  After he went to sleep he did great (he was such a good sleeper the whole vacation, which I am so grateful for).