The Log Cabin grows... a wee bit.

Last year, a couple ambitious Visionaries started a project here at Marvel Hill:
The building of a Log Cabin tucked cozily into a low small clearing near a bent-over
apple tree, and next to a trickle of water where frogs hide.

It's a project for fun (if you call getting sawdust down your sweaty neck and working
in the hot sun lifting heavy tools "fun".  I don't, but I like watching it for fun!), but even
fun projects need to see progress and eventually (dare I dream?) be completed.
This couple days can be called "baby steps" to that end.

The best part of all this, in my opinion, is getting to yack with a friend I only get to see
once a year, while life-guarding children, sipping cold tea, and taking lots of pictures :-)
I'm so glad it's my job to make dinner for a hoard of people and I'm not expected to get
sawdust down my neck!  Life is good. 

A few pictures from the day for your viewing pleasure.  And if you want to check out
last years Cabin proceedings, click here.

Hot, sweaty work should always be followed by a trip to the lake and some play!

That folks, is a brave man in that canoe.
If you thought heaving a log over his head with ropes was risky... ;-)

One World to Conquer... Check.

"Enjoy it"  He said with a chuckle "It's gone so quickly."

He, is my other dad - the one I caught when I married AJ.
And he raised three boys, so he knows.

I think I was rolling my eyes at the childish antics and goofy laughs
of my boys who are becoming aware of how wonderfully witty they are.

Who's minds are opening to the possibility that there are fewer boundaries
than they thought, and more worlds to conquer than they imagined.

They are growing into solo fishing trips which take them further down stream,
and the privilege of piloting their own canoe on the lake.
Of staying up later than the rest,
and sipping coffee now and then.
They invent things,
then build them,
then try them out.

They are sure their ideas have never been thought of,
and that there's a better way to do everything,
and limitations exist only in the lack of funds.

Remember the exhilaration of those first freedoms?
Remember how simple life was?


I sure appreciate the words of a dad who knows how fast it really goes.
Perhaps he's enjoying it even more this time around, but I want to
be sure and heed his wisdom:

"Enjoy it... enjoy them!  It's gone so quickly."

This  picture story is about Clayton and the launching of his "second watercraft".
As you can see, it attracted every other boy at the lake.  There is a built-in
need to conquer, and all boys recognize it's call.

I'm pretty certain that this kind of thing
is at the beginning of every great man.

Aloria gets ready to launch

Aloria is 14 and a half months old.

I don't have early walkers.  My earliest walked at 12 months,
my latest at 21 months, and everyone else was somewhere in between.

Recently it crossed my mind that she hadn't braved any steps yet;
and I wondered if I were neglecting my motherly duty.

Should I be offering my fingers for her to grip as we do laps
across the living room?  Should I be enticing her to with a toy,
to veer from the safe comfort of the coffee table?

Then I remembered..

No.
Each one is unique, and they are ready when they are ready.

This week Aloria decided she was ready to gain a little confidence.

She chose this blue pillow as her aid as she practiced her stance.

I thought her choice of launching platform... unusual.  But after watching her
for a while,  and then getting out the camera to catch her for posterity...

...it became clear why she had better forethought than I.

So thank you brother.
Because of you, your little sister will be one tough petunia.

And I bet her balance is especially keen when she finally takes those first steps!

And the Cousins Came

These cousins who live and breath Idaho with us,
who moved to Nevada for a time.
They came for a very quick and memorable four days
surprising Zachary and all my hoodlums.
We celebrated a birthday
and generally, being together again.

We tie dyed T-shirts.

Partied with neighbors.

Oops.  I forgot that I handed Aloria off to Uncle Charlie.
I don't think he minds.
(Opportunist!)
And obviously, neither does she.

For several days I woke to the whining hum of the zip line, as the early rising monkey's hit it hard.
Coffee with chocolate and whipped cream, omelets, salads for lunch, late night dinner dates with
our brother and sis, visiting to all hours of the night after small cousins drift off to sleep.
Fireworks, Huckleberries, picking flowers and herbs, splashing in the trough kiddie pool.
Sunburns.
And the lake - our little mountain slice of heaven. We lived that experience together too :-)

This one is especially for Grama.  Do you recognize this dress?  It used to be yours.

This one is especially for you Grampa.  Such big boys these fellows are: Judah, Clay, and Zachary.
I asked Judah if he caught any fish.  He told me no, and told me he didn't get a chance to fish.
When I asked him why not, I nearly died at his reply:

"Well... Zachary kept catching fish, so he didn't want to share his pole.
And Clayton didn't catch any at all.  He was sure he was going to though, 
 and didn't want to share his pole either."

I'm missing the thunder of many feet rumbling across the porch as meals were announced.
I'm missing the complete count of 11 rainbow colored shirts so easy to spot in the forest.
I'm missing coffee and whipped cream together on the porch.
I'm missing you each.

And I sure am glad you came!

Bright Summer days

Taking my breath away,

and captivating all my senses,

the Lord's favor, His glorious creation and good gifts

are filling all the moments

and I am trying to live

fully in them

to His glory.

It seems there are more minutes to live, than there are for writing about it afterward.
I think that's a good way to have it.

It feels like our summer has just started in the last two weeks as the heat finally turned up.
We've had friends from out of town, the installation of a new toy at Marvel Hill
(which is often in use as soon as the sun dawns), all meals eaten on the deck, and days of true
summer vacation with Gramsie and Pops.  Zachary's 11th birthday was a special event which included
a surprise visit from long-lost cousins, and more sugar than all the rest of the years capacity combined!

I've taken more pictures than perfectly reasonable, but I can't help it - the light - it dances, it sings,
it whispers to me and I click away.
It's my hobby as I sit beside the ones who aren't proficient swimmers.  I am not the one in the boat.
AJ and I, we trade sentinel duty and each get in a dip before we leave for home.  There is nothing like
that deep cool of wet suites and wet hair and the tingly feeling from a bit too much sun.  It makes for
perfect nights with all the windows open, and dropping off to sleep on top of the covers exhausted
by heat, and cool, and hard play.

Mostly I am overwhelmed by how the days are precious memories-in-the-making for me
and for my children.  And we are making them. Memories by the dozens, and I wonder how
the stories will be told one day from their perspective versus mine.

I think my face will hurt from smiling.