The Cabin Life

Back on June 25th, my family embarked on a car ride to a very old tradition... well, maybe "very" isn't a good word.  Let's just say I've been doing this my whole life.  Driving up to a resort on a lake to spend a whole week with my mom's side of the family.  Just last year we had to find a new resort due to the lack of updating the owner did to the cabins.  Even with a different resort, our traditions stayed alive.

Before my parents were even married, they and my grandparents from both sides of my family, spent some time up at a lake to take a break from all the craziness that goes on at home.  The cabins were small, but that didn't matter when there was plenty to do outside.  The resort had a sandy beach and plenty of docks to jump off of or fish from.  We had been going to that resort for as long as I can remember, the same cabins, the same lake.  My cousins and I used to catch frogs underneath the row boats and canoes.  The slimy amphibians could swim pretty fast once they got to the water, so we had to be quick in grabbing them.

For years, I was scared of jumping off the dock.  Why?  Because I could see seaweed touching the surface of the water.  I get so freaked out about seaweed, I thought I would never jump off that dock... until my brother pushed me off it.  I had it coming, standing near the edge, watching people jump in beside me.

Now, my family stays at a different resort.  The cabins are kept up to date and are given something new each year.  Like a new bathroom renovation or even a new set of deck chairs.  The docks are in better shape than the last resort, and the cabins aren't about to fall off of their foundations.  You know the parable where two men build their homes, one on the sand and the other on the stone?  That's what it felt like, two of the cabins were held up by cement pillars.  But the cabin was on the edge of the pillars, it was as if the pillars would slip out at any moment in time and the whole cabin would collapse.  They didn't, not while we were there.  That's why we needed to find a new resort to stay at.  Sure, I would miss the cabin memories I made at that lake.  But making new memories is what's fun about going somewhere new.

From Thunder Lake to Woman Lake, our Yahtzee tournaments, cornhole games, and campfire treats still lived on.  But enough of the backstory, you guys want to see pictures, right?  I was very excited about this post, and the number of pictures will show that. It was hard to pick and choose, so I put in as many I could :)

Most of these pictures were taken by my mom, I did take some of the lake and of the twins :3

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My brother grabbed his fishing rod the very first night.

My cousin was just as excited to fish as my brother was.

Dad was pretty happy he found a good place to hang his hammock.

My aunt already started reading.

My mom's parents.

My dad's parents.

Brother on the Rave water trampoline.

My dad and brother swimming while
 my other sibling hogged the Rave.

My cousin had twins last October,
 and we got to see them at the cabin.

Me and my cousin Summer,
  holding water balloons.

I had such a fun time this year, and I'm always amazed at the amount of fun we can pack into one week.

Katie, Phin, Kai, and me.

My grandma looked pretty
 happy to hold Phin.

My dad and Phin.

Cornhole traditions.

Games in the late night hours.

Everyone onto the Rave!

Evening activities, which involved Yahtzee,
S'mores, reading and talking with one another.

AJ and Grandpa.

Me and Ryan on the stand-up
paddleboard.

It wasn't very hard, surprisingly.

My mom had 'trying a paddleboard' on her bucket list.

Giant Jenga.

My cousins soaking up the sun while writing.

Volleyball!

My dad took my brothers out on the canoe.

Father and son paddleboat ride.

Reading corner.

Our cabin.

Very conspicuous ninjas standing in front of the sign.

Patio Scrabble.

My brilliant team.

Ground level.

Jetski ride.

Family pictures.

Cornhole game.

We're only missing two people in this picture, I think that's a new record.

Ryan and Sam in the row boat.

A great view of the resort from the lake.

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Thank you all for staying tuned in.  I plan to post the last part of my California series.  It involves the Sequoia Nat'l forest and Mt. Rushmore.

I hope you all have a wonderful week until then.

-Anna Jolene o/

A Trip to California: Part Two

Hello, everyone!  How has your week been?  I hope you all have enjoyed these posts so far.  I think I can finish this series by next week, how does that sound?  There are a lot of things I want to try doing for this blog, so just sit patiently and please give me feedback on what you think.  I love reading the comments whenever I see them pop up in my inbox.

Check out the two previous posts of the series-

• Introduction
• Part One

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The waves seemed to attack us whenever they crashed against these rocks.  

My dad and my brother watching the sunset before the wave attacks them.  My dad caught a video later on when my other brother and I joined them, that's when the wave actually came towards us after crashing against the rocks.  I think a couple of us got pretty wet.

I think this panda's name is Bai Yun.  He was kinda fun to watch, of course, pandas are pretty slow moving and they are usually eating or sleeping.  But this guy just sat and watched the tourists while he ate his bamboo.  Should I mention this was my first time seeing a panda in real life and I was sooooooooo happy to finally see one.

This is a baby flamingo.  Such a cool bird.  Flamingos are one of the animals I just love to see when we go to the zoo.

This is an Andean Tunki... It has another name, but I like this one a lot better.  Isn't that just a beautiful bird!

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Thank you all for staying tuned in while I try to work out this mess of a blog :P
My family just released our ducks yesterday, so I think I am going to post about them next week.  And since my family is going up north for our annual cabin week, I would like to do a brief post about what we will do/did.  And since I don't want to push that off too far, I will post that summary on the second Friday and I will finish off the Trip to California series on the third Friday of July.
 I will see you all next week o/
-Anna Jolene

A Trip to California: Part One

Hello, everyone!
Today I am officially starting a short series called A Trip to California.  I am back from finishing the school year!  In my previous post (disregard the fact that I just posted an update), I explained pretty much everything you need to know about what is happening with this series.  Click here to go see the introductory post.
To briefly state what was said in that post, I will summarize my two-week vacation I took last September. The first post will consist of the drive to California, the second will be about our stay in California, and the third will probably be a shorter post about the return home.  There will be plenty of pictures so that you won't have to imagine anything in your head.
A helpful little fact to know is that I journaled most of our trip over the two weeks we were traveling.  I want to really show the beauty of the world more than anything since I got to see so much.  But what I noticed is that if I copied everything I wrote down in my journal, it would most likely take a couple months before I finish.  And I didn't like that idea, so I put together all the best pictures I took and I will briefly talk about them.
With that, here is part one of A Trip to California.

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I captured a pretty sweet view of a Colorado valley in the Rocky Mountains.  There was a plentiful amount of places to stop and get out of the car to see the view,  but of course, we had to stop at a gravel-like pull-off that didn't look official whatsoever.

Though I didn't get a very good picture of the four corners where you can stand on Arizone, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico at the same time.  Here is a neat image of the flagpoles at the Four Corners Monument.  I practically ran laps through four states in a matter of minutes, so that was fun.  

On our second day of travelling, we visited Garden of the 'gods.'  One of the only places in Colorado that has some beautiful red rock like Utah.  

One thing my family always loves to do is to go hiking.  Garden of the 'gods' has some great trails we went on.  Though they were pretty long, the reward was breathtaking.

These are the largest sand dunes in North America, and they are located in southern Colorado.  I seriously thought we took a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Egypt.  The dunes were massive!  For a size comparison, do you see those three black dots on the lowest hill?  That is my dad and my two brothers.  They are tiny in comparison to those mountains of sand.

My camera is somewhat good at getting lens flairs in on the action.  And that is an understatement.  I feel like whenever I try to get a picture with the sun, even just a tiny bit in the picture, it has to add the lens flairs.  But I really like how this picture shows all the shadows and different shades of color in the Grand Canyon.

I picked to share this view of the Canyon just to show the comparison of size.  The pine trees in this pictures are just tiny compared to the massive cliffs of the Canyon.   It's just an amazing thing to see, God created this beautiful feat just for us to praise His mighty hands, He created this for us to enjoy.

I used this picture for my blog banner, isn't this just beautiful?  I can't believe the stupid amount of sunset pictures I took, but this is one of my favorites.  I captured this on our first night at the Grand Canyon.  

Fun fact:  This is a Western Scrub Jay.  I tried to get a picture of this bird for three days.  From Garden of the 'gods' to the Grand Canyon, I finally captured a picture of this beautiful bird on our second day in the Canyon.

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I hope you all were interested in knowing what we did back in September.  I can't wait to get the rest of the trip out to you guys.  Please leave feedback in the comments below letting me know what you think.  I think it would be awesome to know if others like my photography style and if they want to see more.

 Good Bye!
-Anna Jolene o/