Cabin in the Woods (Day 1)

Sorry about the cheap exploitation of the film currently out (at least it's currently out while I write this). I'm not sorry enough not to exploit it again and again for the next few posts.

When we first arrived at Granny and Grandpa's Minnesota cabin, the kids had a fun time exploring outside.

Sitting, rocking, and swinging

Lucy's violin

Jacob looks for the tree fort

The real excitement came later that day, when we took Grandpa for a surprise birthday present: a horse-drawn carriage ride! He loved it, as did the whole family.

The carriage (they can replace the wheels with runners for winter rides)

Grandparents and grandchildren

Granny with Jacob and Lucy

Almost ready to go!

Me with bunches of the family

Happiness is riding with your family

Nate and Helen and Ava and Isabella

Wind-swept beauties

Deer stand with no deer around

Graveyard of old farm equipment

Meeting the horses

Brave enough to touch

Ava is brave too!

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the neighbors set up a wonderful feast for us to enjoy.

It was super-yummy and left plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week!

They also made a variety of desserts for us to try. Jacob helped Grandpa with the traditional birthday duty:

Only one left to go, but where is Grandpa?

Lucy helped eat.

She loves icing/frosting!

We also celebrated the twins' birthday early, with gifts that were greatly appreciated.

Opening the gift

Figuring out the puzzles...

Almost done!

That evening, the guys went to see John Carter, which was pretty disappointing if you are a fan of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books and probably pretty confusing if you haven't read the books and had to keep up with all the details of what was going on. The special effects were amazing, from the six-limbed green Martians to the amazing flying machines. I just wish they had tightened up the storyline and did a better job capturing the romance between John Carter of Earth and Dejah Thoris of Mars. Since it tanked at the US box office, there's no worry about them continuing to mess up, a la Attack of the Clones. But that's another story.