"Cabin By The Lake"

What's your idea of a cabin?  When I say the word "cabin", what pops into your mind?

Icky, drafty cabin filled with spiders and bugs?  A clean, yet rustic house on the small-ish side?  Something similar to the little picture below?  

Well, the official definition is...

"Cabin" - A small, roughly built house usually with a wood exterior and typically found in rural areas. 

 Last spring, we were graciously invited to vacation with our family.  Our cousin, has a friend who has a cabin right near Lake Michigan.  Sounds like fun, right?  A week away from home, near a lake, with cousins for the kids to play with, adults to talk to...  We had no idea what to expect, but since we both grew up "roughing it", we pretty much figured we could handle just about any sort of living situation...for a week.  After all, relaxing doesn't take a lot of stuff around....just some food, fun and fellowship, right?

So, you can imagine my surprise and great pleasure as we rounded the bend up the hidden drive and saw that THIS was our "cabin" for the week.  Yes, we were in for a great amount of suffering and turmoil.  The cabin was indeed larger than our own home and has more balconies and decks than my house and several of my neighbors put together. 

Upon entering the shack of choice, we were given a tour of more wildlife hanging on the walls then I've seen on a vacation at Yellowstone National Park!  All of the animals had given names and at one time there was actually a diagram with all the names and locations marked.  Thank you, Katie

I think this one is a Caribou 

A Musk Ox

Elk, I think

Everyone should have a Water Buffalo hanging by their smoke detector, right?

A little Zebra skin to keep you company as you go down the stairs.

(And yes, this is the location of Brian's "mis-stepping" mentioned previously.)

The over HEAD view of the living room.  See all the heads over the Grand piano...or wait, maybe its just a Baby Grand piano...after all, it was a cabin.

Amazingly the only animals that were in the kitchen were the grubby children begging for food and anything dead and ready to be cooked for supper.

Here is a Doe and her fawns.  We saw this little family several times going through the wooded area to the main road.  Nice to see that there were a few animals left in the world that weren't mounted on the walls of our "cabin".  he, he he.

We had a great week here, despite Brian's fall escapade.  It is always such a blessing to spend time with family.  We're so thankful for our sweet cousin, Simone and her gracious friend who allowed us all to use the "cabin".