I am grateful to live in a place that has swimming weather most of the year and where I don’t need to worry about slushy wheelchairs and bulky winter outerwear, but there are some days when the heat is so intense that it just makes you long for a slightly different clime. You start to crave the calm, relaxing feeling of an overcast sky. The yearn for fresh smell of grass and pine trees and wet earth. You want to remember what it feels like to “sit outside” because you want to and not only in the unfortunate event that you are forced to because your minivan with husband and four kids ran out of gas on the side of the road (another story for another day). And if you’re lucky, you might catch a break, like we did… even if it’s just for a weekend.
Our friends (and old college roomies), Graham and Jewel, have a little piece of heaven carved out for their family up in Williams, AZ. They have a beautiful A-frame cabin that would fulfill anyone’s cabin dream, out in the middle of acres and acres of pine trees. The cabin in very near a lake and is within one of the most charming Western towns I’ve ever seen. We hadn’t seen Graham and Jewel in much too long, because of life keeping us busy, but we picked right back up where we had left off. The only difference being that this time, there were five children between us and one of the way (hers, not mine), and somehow it seems that we’ve become responsible adults. When did that happen?
We spent our mornings after breakfast sitting and chatting on the deck, watching the rain come down and the kids ran in and out of the cabin. Gabe was thrilled to have a buddy there who was just as eager as he was about playing super heroes and Top Trumps (Super Hero card game). With the novelty of Enler being the only child in their family and a super fun kid, he and Bella sometimes squabbled over who was Enler’s best friend and who would sit next to him at mealtimes.
At one point, Ari was off on a four-wheeling ride with the daddies, the other three bigger kids ran off on a walk with their binoculars in the woods with Jewel, and Liam had just barely gone down for his nap. I sat skipped for joy on the deck, completely alone under a languid grey sky in the wet air for a good thirty minutes. I felt like a different person afterwards.
The kids played hide-and-seek in the cabin. One time, we couldn’t find Gabe for a half hour.
Since Graham and Jewel are vegetarians, we ate much healthier than usual and felt super refreshed after the weekend. I learned that sandwiches don’t need meat to be amazing if you pile on pickled beets, cheese, and a ton of vegetables. I made my favorite vegetarian pasta with poached egg recipe for them, and passed on the recipe.
We visited a nearby lake, and Jake gave the kids a lesson on how to skip rocks.
Those who know me know that I really love summer. Not hot as hell, burn your feet on the pavement with your shoes on, air like the blast from a blow-dryer summer… but play outside in shorts, play in the warm rain, hang out on the dock, eat at the picnic table, roast s’mores over the bonfire, wipe hands sticky with watermelon mess and melted marshmallow on your shirt summer. This weekend, that’s exactly what we got. Thanks for the fun times, Kling-Twaddell family.
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