This year our family "vacation" was to our friends' place. They graciously allowed us to stay in their beautiful hunting lodge for 10 days. Aaron did some work while we were there, but it was still just relaxing to be in the middle of nowhere with just our family. It's probably my 2nd favorite place (after my grandparents' farm).
*Sorry...these are not in "order"*
Beautiful scenery every day.
Anna's favorite part is that we usually get to take Sadie when we go! I think Sadie loves it just as much as we do!
I really miss having wide open spaces like this to watch the storms roll in.
I took a lot of evening walks after getting Grace to bed, with the dogs as company. Their driveway is about a mile long. So peaceful.
Grace loves to be outside, so she definitely enjoyed our "vacation"!
Part of the time we were there, our friends were gone on vacation. They have a little girl close to Grace's age that Grace just LOVES! While they were gone, Grace would constantly say "Go see Aaa-yin!" and want to walk down the driveway.
The kids' favorite thing to do is jump on the hay bales. I don't know what kid doesn't like that!
And this time, Sadie was able to jump up and join them!
One evening, the kids looked out the front window of the lodge and saw a mama deer and her baby!
These two are trouble!!
Even more fun was that the cousins got to come stay for a couple days!! We had planned to keep them at our house while their mom had surgery, but then the surgery date got changed. Thankfully our friends didn't mind a couple extra kids. They had fun...just wait and see!!
Grandpa & Grandma dropped them off on their way home. It was fun to show them one of our favorite places, too.
Hunting for lizards and toads.
Toby found a TINY toad!
Waving bye-bye to Grandpa & Grandma
The kids had a lot of fun playing with all the dogs (our friends have 2 dogs)!
We got some rain while the boys were there and lets just say I did a lot of hosing down and washing clothes!! Haha! It was worth it. (Jacob wasn't so sure after the first hose-down with well water!! Hahaha! COLD!!!) They had so much fun and made lifetime memories.
Crazy cousins!
The Lodge has some really great hiding places!
Sometimes Grace isn't exactly nice to her friend Adilynn...haha!
One of the things Aaron did while our friends were gone was haul water to some cattle. One morning Grace was up super early, so we got to go with Daddy. Unfortunately, none of the cows were around when we got there (she saw plenty along the way!). She didn't seem to mind one bit!
I took care of the garden while they were gone. Let's just say she has some prolific cucumber plants!!! I had to make pickles because there were so many cucumbers!
Jacob, Isaac, Grace, and I met halfway to take the boys back. It just happened to be in Herndon, Nebraska, home of the world's largest porch swing!
Where we called home for 10 days (the main area, anyway). It's an absolutely beautiful place! Our friend does guided hunts, which is why they built this. We are blessed to have such good friends!
We had a wonderful time and most definitely did NOT want to go home...none of us!!
