Monday

Well it was another busy day and the extreme heat stayed away so we had a fun filled day outside most of the time. The night before was an interesting one with a severe storm coming into the mountains around midnight or after. The ominous storm clouds and lightning had Nancy and I on edge until around 1 AM then Amy's cell phone made an unusual noise and kept us awake as its battery was dying and we couldn't locate the source or the nature of the noise, oh well finally around 6 AM after removing the battery from the smoke detector I located and moved the cell phone into a cabinet and shut the door which helped a little. Needless to say it was a rather sleepless night at the cabin.

Nancy made a mountain breakfast of buckwheat cakes, eggs and bacon and the day began after our quiet moments. I took the kiddos on a long golf cart ride to the top of the mountain and we visited briefly with the neighbors on top. Helen our mountain mom came over and spent some time with the kiddos before everyone but me decided to take a hike. I was surprised that Ava and Sam did the whole hike on their own and never complained; I stayed back and rested my knee which seems to be getting a little stronger each day except for some swelling in the ankle area which goes away over night. I'm still using the crutches whenever I have to navigate the ups and downs of the tilted land.

We ate leftovers for lunch which were excellent and we still have a fridge full to eat tomorrow as well. The potato salad and brats where dewisheous leftover as well as was the smoked chicken on a bed of salad along with mac and cheese and broccoli casserole for supper. There was hot fudge brownie cakes with vanilla ice cream for dessert which I had to pass on as the spare tire is becoming evident again since this knee injury.

We took a ride over to Helen's place around 2 to visit with her and to see her beautiful real log cabin with excellent views. She had candy bags for each of the kiddos and afterwards we headed to a local creek to play in the cold water. The kiddos looked for salamanders and crayfish and we found and captured a rather large one for such a small stream of water. The water really chilled everyone off as its crystal clear and very cold. We headed back to the cabin and Tyler and I racked my Pinot Noir.

We decided to eat then I took off with Nancy and the kiddos for the top of the mountain on the golf cart as Amy and Tyler cleaned up. Sam fell asleep as we traveled so we came back and got them ready for their baths and then put on a movie for them. We had the neighbors Jodi, Gerald and Gabe up for domino's and that lasted until nearly 11PM. Jodi came from behind on the last round to edge out Nancy who led the whole game. The kiddos fell asleep on the couch after watching the Chipmunk movie and then it was shower time for all and finally some horizontal lab, LATER