Trip to Harrison and Bruno...long post!

Two weekends ago, we all went to Harrison to visit Dan's family.  We had a great time...here is the run-down of what we did!

We left on a Friday evening right after Malea was picked up.  We had a quick dinner before we left and then we were on our way.  We got to Dan's parents house and visited for a little while.  I think al of us were exhausted and we all retired pretty early for bed that night.  This is where the kids sleep when they are at Granny's.  To me this looks dream-like...who wouldn't want to sleep here??

The next morning, I was able to sleep in...what a blessing!  Dan got up pretty early and went to the farm to work cattle with his Dad, sister and brother.  Dan's mom and I stayed at the house with the kids and prepared side dishes for our Shrimp dinner that we had planned for that afternoon on the farm.  This is Ariel helping Granny maix cupcakes...such a good helper!

The cupcakes aren't complete without licking the beaters!

Once the cupcakes were cooled, Ariel frosted half the cupcakes and put sprinkles on them.

And Caleb was able to finish the rest!

I made some home made macarroni and cheese to take and we were set for some good eating!

It's been a tradition in the Cole family to do a shrimp dinner about once a year.  As a matter of fact, it was during a shrimp dinner that I actually met all of Dan's family all at the same time...almost 12 years ago! 

Dan's sister bought the shrimp from a local wholesaler and really wanted the whole family to enjoy it with her on the farm. 

It has been a long time dream for Dan's mom (and dad) to build a cabin on the farm for the family to enjoy.  the first step to getting there was to have some place to stay while they were in the process of building and to also have a nice covered place to eat instead of eating in the dusty barn like they had for so many years.  So, they built what they call a pavillion.  It's basically a car port with a small room (cedar room) attached to the back of it.  Inside the cedar room, there is a work space to prepare meals with a hot plate and toaster oven.  There is no running water inside the cedar room, but there is well water about 15 feet from it and works just fine to prepare meals and wash up.  There is even a refrigerator, window a/c unit and a propane heater in it, along with a bed, a nice hutch to store clothes and a cute little table to eat on!  Dan and I took advantage of it back in April and stayed the night there.  I great way to get away, especially when I have great babysitters to watch the kids!

Here is a picture of the inside of the cedar room.

And the outside.

Boiled shrimp!

Caleb and Granny peeling the shrimp to cook on the grill.

So anyway, back to the family cabin.  The dream is finally coming true and Dan's parents have broke ground and have the foundation built for the new cabin.  We are all so excited!  It's going to be a great retreat for the enitre family!

Here is the foundation...the best is yet to come!

While we were on the farm, we had tons of other things to do besides eat shrimp!

Ariel swang on the tire swing and Caleb did too but he was the one that discovered there was a bee hive inside...no stings thankfully!

Caleb and Ariel were able to sit on the tractor and pretend to do some farm work...one of these days those dreams will come true to!  I see some brush cutting in the future!

The kids were able to ride on both 4 wheelers with me, Dan's mom and Dan's sister...several times, all over the farm!  Dan and I even took one of the 4 wheeler's to the bottom of the farm that we call the Keeter Place (my favorite spot on the farm) just the two of us and it was great just being able to ride with him!

And Ariel did some more swinging...of course!  That girl loves to swing!

I think the best thing out of the whole weekend for Dan was to be able to teach his kids about guns and to them shoot them. 

He set up some targets...

Taught Caleb all the features on the gun...

Ready? Aim...Fire!

He shot his target the very first try!  Dan was so proud!

And here is Ariel getting some gun action!

And yes...I got some gun action too!  Figured I needed to shoot a gun before I turn 30!  I actually shot 3!  22 Rifle, 99mm Ruger and a 20 gauge shot gun!  I now know the differnce between them all!

After a fun day and good eating at the farm, we all went home, took baths and went to bed!

The next day was Sunday and we all went to church as a family.  Here are some family pictures!

After a late lunch of grilled BBQ chicken and all the fixin's the boys went to the pond across the road from their house and went fishing.  Caleb caught a few but he let them all go.  You can barely see them but it was pretty far away from the front porch!

And the girls including Great Granny sat on the front porch and drank some root beer and enjoyed the nice cool early fall breeze! 

What a wonderful weekend!