Entering our 7th season at the cabin

 I started coming to this lake 38 years ago when I was 5 months pregnant with my 1st child Brianna. 

Rick and I pitched a tent at the church-camp just down the lake a bit from our cabin. The camp that Rick and his sibling grew up attending every summer. Then for about 25 years our family, along with several families from our church vacationed at the camp on the week when there was no organized camp. 

So many great memories! This is also the lake where Rick's family including grandparents aunts & uncles rented a cabin every summer since he was a baby until he was a teenager. So much history on this lake....

Never in our wildest dreams did Rick and I ever think we would be 

cabin owners on this lake that we call ours... 

 If you would have told us 38 years ago that someday we would own a cabin on Long lake 

we would have laughed and shook our heads. 

6+ years ago that dream came true in a way that seemed impossible. 

A beautiful cabin sitting near the lake on a prime piece of land with a sandy beach, a boat and a 2 car garage... the "asking price" more than we could ever pay, but we drove down the access road right next to the cabin (to look and dream) just for the heck of it.  Out of nowhere, the owner, an elderly Christian man named Dick appeared at our car window. He wondered what we were up to, so we told him we had been admiring his cabin (for sale) and that we had been "looking". Within a few minutes he had us in the cabin showing us around, I remember looking at Rick with wide eyes thinking, I love this place. Dick and our family all belonged to the "Church of Christ", we knew many of the same people and enjoyed our visit. Dick told us to think about it, and make him an offer..... 

Dick also told us that he wanted to keep the cabin "in the family". 

Long story short..... It fell into our hands, I believe God orchestrated the sale of this perfect cabin for us. 

We are still amazed going into our 7th season, we love spending time on this lake we call ours.  

Last fall, Rick's brother Brad bought a cabin on "our lake", about a mile north of us.

So crazy to think of us both owning cabin on the lake with so much history in our familes.

Yesterday Brad helped rick assemble and get our swimming raft in the water.

Brad brought along some grandchildren

My niece Kellie and her mamma Julie.

I remember Kellie was 2 months old the first time she came to Long lake for our family summer vacation.

I still feel like this is all a dream. 

God willing... 

we have lots of years and more generations to make memories and enjoy our time at the lake!

We are blessed beyond measure. 

Rick's brother Brad and wife Julie recently purchased a cabin on the same lake as ours, (near Park Rapids MN). Their cabin can be open all year, unlike ours which is seasonal. We have had our cabin for 6 years and have never seen it in the winter. It's always been a dream of mine to be up on the lake during the winter. That dream came true last weekend as we were invited to join Brad & Julie at their cabin. 

We couldn't stay at our cabin but we did visit it, walked around a bit and left before we froze to death, as temperatures dropped into the single-digits

A photo of our cabin from the road

The other dream was to be there when it was snowing, that dream came true too! 

We had 4-5 inches of snow overnight, It was beautiful

Pine trees flocked with freash fallen snow

Brad & Julie

The day before the snow came we went for a walk in a sweet nature preserve near the cabin.

We came across this track, which made us feel a little uncomfortable,

Back at the cabin I "googled" tracks and came up with this photo that looks a lot like the one we saw.

A cabin neighbor text'd me while we were there to warn me to be careful.

 There had been a recent bear and bobcat sighting near the area we were walking...yikes

The sun was reflecting on the trees in the background, such a pretty time of day.

Looking thru the trees I snapped this one

Our little up north get away was just what we ALL needed after a busy and emotional couple of weeks.

 Julie lost her mom suddenly then 3 days later Brad & Rick lost their mom. 

We enjoyed each others company, we relaxed, played games, watched a Christmas movie, went to town, went out to eat once and talked....A lot!  

It felt good to reset and spend time with family in a place we all love.

On our drive home I pulled over to take this photo.

Sundogs and -11 degrees. My iPhone camera did not do it justice, but you get the idea.

Bonus photo's

Sunrise, if you look hard you can see the lake smoke...so pretty

An eagle on the ice just outside our cabin. He saw me and decided to take off.