We have been looking for a lake cabin to rent for a couple of months. We talked to some friends, tried a couple of online rental websites (and got some funny feelings when the cabin owners wouldn't sign a lease with us but wanted the money via paypal that day), and then gave up on the idea when we realized we could fit in another kind of trip this summer. More on that later.
And then last week, a friend mentioned that they were going up to "the cabin" for the weekend. My hubby lamented that I had been bugging him to death about renting a cabin and the friend said, "Well, just use this one." Unbeknownst to us, these good friends of ours had a lake cabin in the family and eagerly offered to rent it to us later in the summer.
And not only that, but on the spur of the moment, they asked us to spend the 4th of July weekend at the cabin with them so that we would be familiar with it before we went up there alone.
And, oh my goodness, I have no words to describe how wonderful "the cabin" is. Except for missing the smell of the salt water, I could almost imagine I was in Maine.
Of course I took a kajillion photos. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask their permission to post the photos of their family, so here's a few that show just my family or a blurred-out face.
I saw this flag on the road up there - how perfect for the 4th of July weekend!

Here's the cabin from the water side. Ahhhhh........
And this is the view from the backyard of the cabin. Sigh. I miss it already.

The cabin sits in a little cove at one end of the lake and is surrounded by lily pads, frogs, turtles sunning themselves and dragonflies zipping around - it was just the most serene setting you could imagine.
There was a paddle boat that the kids took out as often as they could. Libby and her friend spent hours hunting turtles while they quietly paddled around the cove.

And they adopted "Claws." But only for a few minutes - then he was gently placed back on his log to hang out with his family.
My favorite spot was at the bow of the pontoon boat. :)

The kids all loved the pontoon boat, too.

But not as much as they enjoyed tubing behind the pontoon boat! And Tom did, too. We laughed the entire time he and Emily tried to balance on the tube together.

And Andrew quickly perfected the universal sign for "FASTER!"

Even more, they loved having the anchor dropped and Daddy throwing them overboard.
And to think that we get to do it all over again later in the summer! I can't wait!