Family Vacation- The Cabin

Last week my husband had a week off of work

so we took advantage of the time and

went to visit his brother, wife and 2 kids up

in Kamloops.

My sister in law's family has a cabin on Walloper Lake

near Laque le Jeune.

We have gone up and spent time at the cabin

every summer, but never with Marshall...

until now!

A new enviroment, new "no's",

new sleeping arrangement.... hmmm...

really had no idea how this was going to go over.

BUT

we decided that we would try and if it was going

terrible, we'd just come home, no biggie.

So Sunday morning all 5 of us drove up.

Marshall fell asleep as we pulled into

the driveway, so we let him nap a bit longer

which actually worked out well

as we were able to unload the van and sort

everything.

M woke up and as per usual, he was grumpy.

He sat with me in the lazy boy until he 'came to'

and then he explored the new space.

Their family dog Harley was there so Marshall

was excited about that :)

M wandered around and we set up boundaries for him

and for the most part, he didn't fight anything.

The main area of caution for Marshall is the deck.

They have built in seating all around the deck which is

2 stories off the ground.

He was never out there alone.

He loved to stand on the deck and look out at the

"waer" (water) and point!

He also pointed to the "boat" constantly.

On the second day, Uncle S, Daddy and I took M out

on the boat.

Marshall was excited to put on his life jacket and

was happy walking down to the dock,

but then we started to get into the boat...

the unstable, rocky boat,

and Marshall started freaking out.

I wasn't stressed out but

was just kinda laughing as i figured he'd get over

it soon enough.

S started up the motor and we headed out further

on the lake.

Marshall was not impressed...

but he didn't know what he wanted either.

He was going back and forth from Dad and myself,

he was pointing at the fishing rods

and grabbing the oars and

just looked very overwhelmed.

We stopped the motor and got out the fishing

rod which M held briefly.

Uncle S caught a little fish for Marshall which

M thought was pretty cool.

Marshall came to touch it and pulled away quickly

and said, "yuck". lol.

Then we unhooked it and M really wanted to hold it.

So we gave him the slippery fish and he held it

in his hand.

He looked at it for a short moment,

the went to the side of the boat and

tossed it back into the water. lol.

Our little environmentalist ;)

One of my main concerns about going away from

everything familiar at home,

was the sleeping part.

The little kids and i actually slept in an RV on the

property. I wanted to have a quiet

place to take them if needed,

and then also, i could keep them in there in the

mornings to let everyone else sleep in a bit.

We set up M's bed where the table turns into a bed.

I brought ALL of his bedding and most of his

bed things/toys that he always has.

He was a little freaked out

so i layed down with him and rubbed his head until

he fell asleep.

He slept through the night the first night

and so did D!!

I was paranoid about them waking up and so

every noise had me alert. lol. I didn't sleep at all

the first night.

Both the second and third night Marshall fell asleep

on his own while i read my book in my bed,

but during both those nights

M woke up at 3am and came into my bed!

He has never done this at home.

I expected him to cry if he woke up and i would soothe

him back to sleep in his bed.

So this was strange.

He simply crawled in on his own,

layed down beside me,

and fell back asleep.

Weird.

But hey, he slept!!

I even got him to take a nap in one of the bedrooms

in the cabin the one day he needed it!

The last day there we went to a relatives farm to

see all of his birds... peacocks, pheasants, chickens, doves etc.

Marshall enjoyed that briefly but then

ventured down to the water and Daddy basically

chased him around the whole time.

There was a hilly area of grass and we all

enjoyed watching M happily rolling around on it. lol.

M crashed most of the drive home :)

It was a great adventure!!

Marshall did much better than i expected,

which makes me happy.

I am realizing that keeping my expectations low

creates a happier turn out! lol.

I will be less hesitant to take the kids, aka Marshall,

away for a night or two after

this successful trip! Yeah!