turn, turn, turn

This weekend was spent roughing it in the wilderness, which is what my husband really, really wanted for his birthday. And by roughing it, I mean we stayed in a cabin that had a jacuzzi and direct tv, and we had to walk twenty whole yards from our front door to get wi-fi. I mean, come ON.

But it was glorious to be out of town, out of reach, (because our cell phone service was iffy), smelling the fresh mountain air, eating chili baked potatoes and playing one hundred and eighty five games of UNO with the undisputed UNO champion of the world.

I started reading a book, we napped (and by we I mean Charley), we noshed, we wandered, we laughed. We drove around and Charley would stop the car while I got out and took pictures of old barns and longhorn bulls.

Joe-Henry loved our cabin, which had a tiny kitchen where he could play, a window that he could slide open at hip height and pretend to be working the window at McDonalds, and wonder of wonders, a murphey bed, which he put up all by himself before we left today. The lovely woman who owns the cabins brought us hummingbird cake (banana and pineapple) with creamcheese frosting fresh from the oven for dessert last night, and we thought we had died and gone to heaven.

Everything was so green and gold and red - vibrant and exhilarating, and when you breathed in, you felt the clean go all the way to your toes. We took a tiny hike down the Little White Salmon river and watched some kayakers push off, and wandered on a little trail under steep cliffs, rocks covered in emerald moss, happy to be with each other in the wild.

We got huckleberry pie (for me), huckleberry cobbler (for Charley) and a banana milkshake for JH at a small diner that looked like something out of a movie, there were hunters all eating up after a day in the forest, doing what hunters do. Charley's kilt was the talk of the town, but hey, there isn't a lot you can say when you wear camouflage and bright orange.

We drove back today, all of us pretty quiet, storing it up to last until we can do it again. Usually I feel tired after a weekend trip, but this was so peaceful, I actually feel rested and ready for the week ahead. It was heaven to be with my little brood, just the three of us. If I have to rough it, I want to rough it with these guys.