Our Cabin in the Woods

I have been to Highland Retreat many times since my childhood. I fondly remember church camp outs and winter youth retreats that were held in the beautiful mountain retreat. For the past eleven years, I've been taking my friends and customers to the lodge at Highland to scrapbook each May. This spring, it dawned on me that we could be utilizing the camp more for our family. I booked a cabin getaway for Memorial Day weekend and invited my sister's family to join us at the air conditioned retreat center in July.

Our Memorial Day weekend was full of fun and adventure. The A frame cabin was a great alternative to tent camping. We arrived on Friday afternoon and settled in, set up our beds and pulled out our cooking supplies. We were excited to see that our cabin sat next the creek and that the water levels were higher than we'd ever seen them before. That evening, a severe thunderstorm hit and the levels rose higher, there was even concern that we might experience flooding. We moved our vehicle to the other side of the concrete bridge so we could evacuate if necessary. Since our cabin did not have running water, I had to make several trips to the bathhouse in the middle of the night. I could hear the creek under me as I crossed the bridge. It was a bit eerie, but by morning, the danger had passed. By Saturday evening, the water receded and the weather was beautiful, albeit HOT, the rest of the weekend.

The boys enjoyed many adventures exploring the creek, riding their bikes, renewing old friendships and making new ones, playing Ga Ga (translated "hit hit" in Hebrew, it's a version of dodge ball), swimming, making meals on the camp stove and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. D taught them how to play Poker (they used marshmallows for chips one night, Froot Loops the next night). He was involved in their activities and got right in the "Ga Ga" pit with them. He set up a projector and played movies for them at night. He played lively games of water polo and did crazy dives from the board with them. As I looked around, I did not see many other parents interacting with their children. We are so grateful that we have these opportunities to be together, and we want to spend time with our boys. We gave them some freedoms to explore on their own, but we always knew where they were and asked them to check in after a short time. I cherish the memories that we made!

On Sunday afternoon, my brother and his family joined us at the pool. Awhile later, my dad and grandparents arrived. We enjoyed a cookout together, despite the hot, sticky and buggy evening.