For this weekends adventure(written 2 weeks ago and not posted untill now) we decided to head to the family lake cabin and find a hike near by. Monday being Columbus Day and a school holiday, Maddex had an extra day of a family time for us to fill with adventure. Our adventure started off with a major bummer.

After breakfast, before we were gonna leave we wanted to have to have a morning swim in the tub. Sad Face, when we got into the temp was only 85 vs the normal 95. The water on top was 85, the water at the bottom felt like a far smaller number then 85. According to a scientific study we commissioned it turned out the outdoor GFCI breaker had flipped. Momma flipped it back and let it run. Then the breaker flipped again. Sad face something is not right here. When tub was on it made heat and all to the jets ran, but the breaker kept flipping. I messed with it for a bit then gave up we’ve got a weekend of adventure. I’ll mess with the tub Monday after we return.

(update – worked fine when we returned home. Must have been a damp motor from all of the waves we made last time playing in the tub)

While we were in the tub, messing with the tub, running around the house making noise and what not – Momma took the responsiblity for most of the packing . All packed up and ready we were on the road Around 9am. First stop was Safeway in Belair to pick up snacks, and as it turns out dinner too. In all of the morning confusion momma forgot to pack the dinner we were planning.

Momma completing the van loading process

Kids loading putting things away getting ready to leave

Showing up at the Cabin

Perception of time hits me every time I drive out to the cabin. I’ve been coming out here with the family since I was Maddex’s age and I can still place myself in the back of the car feeling like it took an entire day to get to the cabin. Now, it’s about 35 minutes which is next to nothing compared to my hour one way commute to work. We made it to the cabin around 10:40 and unpacked.

I messed around with a fire in the main cabin and getting the gas fireplace going in the smaller cabin. The propane tank went empty on me right after I light the fire, then I had to swap it for another one and prime it all up again, which took a bit. Pressing the stupid spark button for 15 minutes did a number on my thumb. After fire momma started in on lunch and I hide eggs for the kids.

egg hidden in the sink curtain – momma loves making things out jeans

saturday we found a bag of easter eggs at the goodwill outlet and bought them. While I was messing with fires Maddex and Mila put candy into 30 eggs for me to hide around the yard. Such a simple thing the with massive return on kid happiness. As soon as they were done they asked to do it again. I had Maddex stuff another 15 eggs to hide for them to find when we made it back from our hike.

Twanoh State park for a Hike

Family in front of the Twanoh park sign.

I’ve parked in Twanoh state park a few times in my life; I’ve never really made the time to explore the park. Looking for hikes near the cabin it turns out there is a 2 mile or so loop hike along a river in the park and a camp ground. We walked around the park on the water and explored for a bit – then we crossed the road and went for a hike along a river up a hill. The kids brought their new walking sticks with them on this hike for a trial run.

Maddex with his staff because I could not get them both to pose with them side by side

I made both walking sticks 4 feet long; hindsight a bit too long. The wrap on the tops of the staffs was directly on the polycarbonate; hindsight this allowed the kids to pull the rope up and down a bit on the walk making it come undone. Version two will have a leather or gaffer tape base under the wrap, and might be a bit shorter for the smaller kids. Maddex was ok with the longer staff – Mila not so much.

The walk was great. Some hills, nice forest, small bridges, water to walk over, river to look at and listen to, a small covered picnic spot to explore, odd tree to climb on / in – most everything the millfam needs to have a great hike. Along the walk, with the theme of the egg hunt from earlier, Michelle and I hide eggs along the trail for the kids to find. Which entertained them and distracted them at same time.

Kids not watching me while I ran ahead to hide some eggs

Instead of being into the hike they were focused on when we would hide the next eggs for them to find; which was kind of a bummer. Pluses and minus on this egg hunt idea. The frustrating part for me was dealing with crappy large hard to stick together easter eggs. Next time we head out I’m going to take some small sealable metal geo caching things. After the hike we drove back to cabin for another egg hunt, dinner cooked on the fire, and sleepy time.

Cabin Fire and Sleepy time

Roasting Dogs and Polish sausage over the fire with auto roasters

After our egg hunt, before the food cooking, we walked down to the lake to play on the slides and walk on the dock. Khaleesi was really into ridding on the frog with the spring thing under it thingie. Mila and I took the slide holding hands a few times and Maddex had me spin him around the spinny thing. We walked around the dock then back up the hill, up the stairs, back to the cabin to cook some food by the fire.

After food and egg hunts and setting up beds and watching a cartoon to calm the kids a bit Michelle read books to the kids by the fire and we put them to bed. Michelle and I watched a show, read a bit, and passed out ourselves. Sleeping in the cabin was not too bad at all for the millfam.

In the morning we had breakfast around the fire, packed up the van, cleaned up the cabin, visited the lake play ground and off we drove to Cushman. Along the way Michelle read to us from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Tune in next time to find out how that trip went – I could write about it here, but I posted so many picture below I feel the post might crash the internet if I add more.