Shack Life

Fall is, by far, my favorite time of year. One of the best parts of Fall is the beautiful weather, that cool air and days at the shack. Parker would live down there if we let him...it takes us about 3 hours to pack up all the stuff we have to move down to the shack but it is well worth it. I actually got Bear's (and his brother's) crib from when he was a baby and set it up down there for good. We spent part of Labor Day weekend at the shack...it just happened to be the last weekend of summer for weather. We ended up coming home Sunday morning at 10 am when it had hit 80, we had had enough. But the boys absolutely had a blast playing at the shack. A change of scenery proves wonders for kids. Parker is always so well behaved at the shack, he really views it as a treat to go. We brought his four wheeler down and he rode that around and around the shack. He would walk the "trails" at the shack, loves going potty in the outhouse, and of course wearing his shack clothes! He and Bear went down a day earlier than Emmitt and I and had daddy and Papa time.
It happened to be Papa Don's 68th birthday on August 30th. We had made all these plans to have supper together at the shack and then realized it was his birthday! So it made it all the better. He kept saying it was one of the best days of his 68 years. I made him his favorite cake, German Chocolate, and painfully tried decorating it with shack utensils. Ended up squeezing out a frosting 68th and some candles. Parker loves birthdays, doesn't matter whose it is, he loves the candles, singing and the cake.
I own rubber boots...in a very bright shade of pink...I sometimes wear them in my yard when we puddle jump but mostly they stay at the shack. I love my girly rubber boots. Parker has started noticing all the repetitive colors in our family...mommy has lots of pink and orange, Emmitt's clothes are usually blue or orange, daddy has lots of green, and Parker has camo, orange and every other color.
He likes to match things up; like his pink vitamin with my robe or brown meat with his eyes, he remembers what other things match up to be. Another really funny thing he does (that shows me he is learning) is that 3 or 4 objects be come family members. He lines up the objects of various sizes and calls them "daddy, mommy, baby" or "daddy, mommy, Parker and Emmitt." Like my hair products-3 different sizes of bottles become big, medium and little/daddy, mommy, baby. He does this with rocks, cups, toys, boxes, pictures in books, everything. "This is the daddy leaf, a mommy leaf, a baby leaf" sometimes he'll make the objects into 4 family members, but what we don't know is if the baby is Emmitt or himself.

One of the hugely missed luxury's the shack does not have is running water...so that means hauling it from the well down the road to the shack, boiling it for dishes and of course being at the shack means boys get dirty so the water is much needed for baths. The sink bucket was a perfect fit for Emmitt. Parker was a little crammed in though. When Parker was about 8 months I gave him his first sink bath at home and there was water everywhere. That was the one and only time...until now. I know some people love giving their kids baths in the sink-I admit the standing position for me and my post-baby-in-pain-all-the-time-back enjoyed it, but even at the shack, there was water everywhere.