“Why don’t you come join us at our cabin this summer?” is a question that’s music to my ears. Who wouldn’t want to relax at a cabin in the wilderness for a few days?
So we did! My brother-in-law Dave has a family cabin in beautiful Star Valley, Wyoming, and we spent the week up there. For the first time in my life, I rode a horse…
Dave took me up the canyon, and it was a gorgeous quiet evening as we followed a horse trail through the forest. My horse, Fitz, stopped to nibble on grass every fifty yards, but he was great. Here’s my saddle-eye view:
We rode for about two hours, which was perfect. I wasn’t sore, but after another hour I probably would’ve been.
Pepper took Fitz out the next day.
The days were pretty hot, but we took advantage of the area to go on some walks. I can’t really call them “hikes” because they were either along gravel roads or ATV trails in the canyon. Pepper has an app on her phone that identifies plants, which is a lot of fun when you’re on a trail and wonder what flower that is, or what type of fern you’re passing, or whatever. So there were a lot of pauses on our walks as she pulled up her app and then triumphantly notified us what plant we were looking at. I don’t remember any of them.
Back in the air-conditioned comfort of the cabin, I made friends with my nieces and nephews. Well, actually they’re my grand nieces and nephews. Although I know all of my in-law siblings’ kids, I admit I don’t know all of their kids. There are simply too many of them, and we only do family reunions every other year. So in this case, it was the first time I’d really spent any time with this group, and I literally had to be reminded of all their names on the first day.
But later that day, we were fast friends.
It was funny how much all these little kids wanted to hang out with me. They argued about who got to be on Uncle Cosmo’s team for a game of Skip-Bo or Go Fish. They pushed each other out of the way to get a turn to sit on my lap. As a result, most of the games looked like this:
I only had Dirk and Bella in that moment; Lily (in turquoise on the right) had apparently hopped up to get a snack or something. It’s tricky to have three kids on your lap at a time!
They insisted on a selfie with Uncle Cosmo.
That’s Bella, Tally, Dirk, Lily, and Veja. What a crazy group. I actually had a ton of fun getting to know them, and wish I could see them more often. One morning all the adults were going to head out for an adults-only trip, and I offered to stay at the cabin to watch the kiddos (because someone had to stay back). Everyone said I was asking for trouble, but I figured it would be a blast. It turns out several of the kids ended up going with their parents, and I was left to babysit just two of them. So we played games and had snacks and went on a long walk.
On the left is Mason, who was born the same day as Ollie. He probably outweighs his cousin by twenty pounds, though… he’s kind of a chunk, while Ollie seems to have no body fat. At the time I took this picture, we were gathering flowers to make a bouquet for their mom. It was fun.
Speaking of their mom, we had a good time at a nearby lake one afternoon…
We were kayaking and paddleboarding. The weather was pretty warm, but the water definitely wasn’t. I jumped in a few times, because that’s what you do on a lake, but I didn’t spend long in the water. It was cold enough to take your breath away.
My nephew Ty, doing teenage stuff, managed to slice open his foot right to the bone. He and Luke paddleboarded back to shore where we figured out some first aid. That was when we realized we weren’t really prepared for this sort of thing… we had a couple of Band-Aids, but the cut was big and deep (and dripping blood). Fortunately another family on the shore noticed us, and brought over a proper first-aid kit with some gauze and tape. After that I told myself I’d be more prepared in the future… you never know when something like this might happen.
As our time in Star Valley wound down, I was told the Red Baron was the place for shakes. A group of us put it to the test.
Indeed, the shakes were pretty great. So was the cabin, and especially the time with family. We’re hoping to make this an annual tradition. Because hey, who doesn’t like hearing “Why don’t you come join us at our cabin this summer?”