Way more fun than my last labor day!

My last labor day would have been Sam's birthday... see what I did, wordplay!  Not that his arrival wasn't fun, but great weather, great food, and not giving birth pushed the holiday across the finish line.  

Sam had a really great time at the cabin, and it is a pretty great place to have him because there isn't much that is breakable and he's pretty easy to corral. 

Jack had  a great time playing with Papa.  Ever since Cori stepped on that thorn, Jack's been fairly concerned about the Russian Olive trees and even asked me something about the "hamsters."  Hamsters?  You know, where  Papa and I sat between the trees?... Oh, hammocks? "Yeah hammocks!"

Sam liked the hamster too.

We also made Ruth's Cornbread Salad...Sam just had cornbread.  I'm not sure if he actually ate any of it, but he enjoyed making the mess. 

There was a big storm that came through this summer and the roof was totaled.  Dad spent some time measuring the roof to replace it.  Jack was in hog-heaven because he got to climb the ladder several times. 

Dad asked Jack to look up there and check something.  Jack whipped around and in his funny little voice said, "Sure thing Bob!"  Always an eager little helper.

Mom and Dad took off a day or two early to head to Idaho, so we got a couple of days alone at the cabin too.  We put the boat in and headed to the beach. 

Sam enjoyed napping on the beach.

We had a prime rib dinner before Mom and Dad left for Idaho.  We were then forced to eat the leftovers, so we got everything ready at the cabin to make THE BEST cheesesteak sandwiches ever!  We threw all of the meat, au jus, mushrooms, pepper and onion in the cast iron and threw the bread into the fire. 

Whichever morning we left the cabin (this is what happens when you wait a month to blog), we picked wild plums.  Jack discovered cockleburs... he was not amused.  I had not realized that he would not know what to do with those pokey things in his jeans.  I picked them out for him, but he was done plumming (see additional blog).   We took home a big bunch of plums and have made some delicious jelly.