Farm Trip and New Cabin

In June we took a trip up to the Lloyd farm.  The first day or two we went with my parents to go cabin shopping.  We looked at 4 or 5 cabins in the Star Valley area.  A few of them were very nice, even fancy, cabins.  But the land was either too small or too barren.

The last cabin in Afton was Isaac's last hope.  We knew that it would need a lot of work because it was being sold "as is".  But when we got there it was a lot worse off than we expected.  The entire outside needed to be re-finished.  And the inside was weird.  It had lots of strange rooms, and missing pieces.  The outside location was absolutely gorgeous and just what we had been looking for, but the inside wasn't.  But as I was walking through it I was trying to decide how much potential the place had.  It was weird, but could we make it cool.  It was priced well because it was really run down, so could we put in some work and fix it up nice?

My parents had to leave, and Isaac's family came up to meet us.  We ended up taking them to the cabin we were considering a second time to get their input.  And again we were just really torn.

But while we were spending time at the farm with Isaac's family we went to the Heise Hot Springs one day.  The kids had a blast swimming here and going on the water slide (even though the slide was freezing).  We ended up staying most of the day.

We also did usual farm stuff like go for walks and bike rides.  And the kids spent lots of time on the swings and playing in the yard.  Grandma Karla even brought up canvases for the kids to paint.

Jarem's family wasn't able to be there.  But otherwise it was a really nice trip and everyone seemed to get along and there wasn't any drama.  Shortly after coming home, Isaac and my dad decided to make an offer on that cabin in Afton.  And after some negotiations, we were locked in to buy it.  So in a lot of ways the trip to the farm was kind-of our goodbye trip.  We can still go up there, but with our own place just down the road 20 minutes or so, we probably won't be at the farm much anymore.  And I think that was really good closure for Isaac to help him move on.  And he's super excited for this new cabin.  (I'm still not sure I want a cabin, and it's going to be a lot of work and expense.  But hopefully it will be a fun place for our kids to make memories.)

 Kitchen has a nice view of the yard.

 These bar stools are so sharp and bang a lot.

 Large front room.

Nice view out the living room windows.

At the end of July we closed on our new cabin.  My parents and our family went up there for a few days.  My mom and I spent 3.5 days deep cleaning the whole house.  It was filthy.  My dad and Isaac helped with some cleaning, but also fixed things and made plans for the next steps.

 Sophie got to sleep in her own big bed.

 Aspen and Luke wanted to share a bedroom.

They had fun taking a bath in the jetted tub.

The kids were great while we were up there.  They just played and entertained themselves while we worked.  And they had a ton of fun exploring all the different rooms.

They shot bows and arrows.

They found snakes.

Our first meals inside and outside the cabin.