A Mid-Winter Break

A lot has happened in the past week. It almost feels as though I skipped several weeks of blogging, because there as been so much going on, and I really haven't had time to record my thoughts or keep up with comments coming in.

We took a mid-winter vacation, but instead of going south, like most folks do, we decided to head even further north, into the Adirondack Mountains of New York. We rented a small cabin near Saranac Lake, and cozied in.

Our goal for this trip was to spend quality time together as a family, before our lives get busy, like always is the case when spring arrives. We figured that the best place to just relax and be, is somewhere where it is too cold to do much. If we would have went south, we (we being me) would have felt like we should make the most of every waking moment, hiking and swimming and running, from sun up to sun down.

I am a northern girl, but even I didn't know quite how to prepare for the drastic temperatures -- other than layering almost every article of clothing I brought along before going outside. It got down to -24* the one night, but our little cabin was so cozy and enjoyable.

We stayed in most of the time, reading and sleeping and watching movies, but we did venture out to the lake several times, and explored Lake Placid, where the 1932 and 1980 Olympics were held, one afternoon. And of course, when you are that close to a good mountain, you might as well snowboard for a few hours, which is what Herm did while Carson and I hung out in the lodge.  Maybe next year all three of us can go boarding. They start lessons for children as young as two years old!

Our time came to an end all too soon. We all agreed another day or two would have been nice -- but it was time to get back home, and finish remodeling our bathroom before our weekend guests arrive.

We had stopped mid-way before we left, which basically means the sink was no longer existent, and that just doesn't work when you have a house filled with twelve people, and only one bathroom.

So as soon as we arrived home we got to work, and kept at it, painting, sanding, installing, painting again, and running into town who-knows-how-many-times for things we needed. And guess what?! We did it! Less than thirty minutes before our guest arrived the bathroom was done (enough) to be used again.

But that's another blog post for another day.