Cabin Weekend

No time for posting, sadly. Time for me has been unusually inflexible this past month. Blogging has taken it's hit. Hopefully, I can catch up on this while I catch up on my laundry!

I had the best weekend at the cabin! First Falcom learned how to drive a snow machine and was in charge of his own locomotion. So excellent and exciting. We left from our house. I could not feel more proud of Falcom. He did so great for his very first time!

When we got there Glenn and the kids had just gotten there and had the outhouse trail shoveled and the fire going. Nice.

This is a shot of Glen and Vince hanging out on our new deck. They built this over the summer and it is NICE. It is nice to sit outside without having to sit in the snow. It has been so warm here. There was a heavy snow Friday night but by noon Saturday it was warm enough to make me feel like we were in the Sierra Nevada's.

Vince and Glenn took a long ride and made us dinner reservations at the CCL (Cole's Clean Living Lodge) for Valentine's Dinner. I am still unsure why they chose the term "Clean Living" to describe their lodge. Snow machines are not clean. They are noisy and smelly. I think it is more about the CL initials (Caribou Lake) rather than the actual clean living aspect. It is a VERY fun lodge to travel to and the family running it is really happy and into what they are doing.

The kids stayed alone in the cabin while the four of us adults enjoyed a humorous evening out in Caribou Lake style! Chicken Rice at the CCL was nothing like Chicken Rice in Malaysia. You can see this from the picture. The meal was tasty and very comforting on a cold night.

I will now share with you a story that most bloggers would not share. You might want to skip this if you are at all squimish. You see, I am unable to eat food with cooked sour cream in it. I don't know why but it goes straight through. After the meal I got up and had to immediatly go out to the plywood outhouse in the dark. I fumbled across the snow to the plywood outhouse. I was NOISY with gas galore. Just when I was glad to be outdoors in the dark where no one would have to deal with my problem, I heard footsteps in the snow. "Alana, is that you?" Arg! Ede.

She had a smoke while she waited.

After I made more echoing sounds, I began groping around looking for the toilet paper in the dark, wondering if she was hearing my problem from the door of the lodge. I finally gave up and asked her to come near with a flashlight. Unbenonst to me, I had been groping around in a urinal looking for the toilet paper! How long have I been using outhouses in Alaska and I had never imagined that a plywood outhouse with the word 'restroom' spray painted on the door in an uncute way, would be equipped with a urinal. How could this get worse? Seeing Ede's face and knowing that she had indeed had the pleasure of listening to my stomach. That made it worse.

That evening I slept like a baby! (I know, shocking right?!)

In the morning the kids made breakfast. The "um, duh, how can I make pancakes if I don't know where the mix is?" teenage junk rolled off my back like water on a duck as I chuckled remembering that I told Jerami that that exact thing would indeed happen.

Even the part where Vince broke into laughter and said, "Where the hell do you think it is?"

We came home in the early afternoon. Marina practicing driving while I helped her steer. It takes a lot of strengh to pull the machine to the left and right in the heavy warm snow. We came across this dog sled team along the way. Beautiful!

Yes, it was a very Happy Valentine's Day!