Cozy Cabin

Your perspective on a lot of things changes when you are a parent, especially of young children.  One of those is how you view birthdays, presents, and celebrations in general.  Dave and I thought by virtue of being an aunt and uncle, we knew what to expect and what pitfalls to avoid when it came to celebrations.  Despite our best efforts, we had yet to perfect how to pass the different milestones in our children's lives.

Linus had a first birthday party.  There have been no official parties since.  When we first got married, we went to two Thanksgiving one year.  We now rotate.  We also learned that three days of Christmas in a row is two days too many.  What is fun and exciting for adults, is overstimulating and exhausting for little ones.  Kids become unappreciative, demanding, screaming tyrants.

Besides my family's three birthdays close together (myself, Linus, and Eileen), the day after Eileen's birthday is my nephew, Dylan's, and the following day is my brother-in-law, Chris'.  That's a whole lot of birthday.  In an effort to prevent over-stimulation and exhaustion for both kids and adults, my sister, Beth, and I decided to just rent a cabin for a weekend and skip big celebrations.  It was one of the best decisions we ever made.

After an initial slow start due to car troubles, we had an amazing weekend.  We rented a cabin in Long Beach with its own private trail to the beach.  We played lots of board games, drank mulled wine and hot cider, sat by the fire, watched the winter storms, ate birthday cake, and let the kids just be kids.  There was no cell service, no internet, and no dvd player.  It was old school and a perfect escape.  The kids played great together.

We braved pelting winds and rain one morning and headed to the beach.

Proof we made it to the beach.

The walk back.

Twister

A little bit of the action was caught on video.  I call it, "Parents talk, kids play."

Roughhousing

My mother asked me to take a picture of the kids all together.  Eileen didn't quite cooperate.

Sometimes you go into vacations with little kids with high hopes of relaxation that are quickly dashed by the realities of life with small children.  This weekend was not one of those times.  I think it may have to become a new tradition.  I don't think anyone would complain.