Retzer's Cabin on Long Lake

We spent the weekend at our friends cabin on Long Lake (near Park Rapids) this past weekend and had such a fun time! The kids had a blast together and played really well together. There was a lot of fishing, a few boat rides, an attempt to go tubing, great food and great time with friends!

He is such a doll-I just can't get enough of him!!

On Friday we all unpacked and got settled and then took the boat out for a spin to go fishing. We hit the jackpot and could hardly reel the fish in fast enough. Bishop was in heaven!! He would jump up and down and he didn't care how big the fish were--he was just so happy to catch them!! He caught a pretty nice bass, but we threw it back in....we did keep a good number of sunny's and we fried them up on Sunday during the Vikings game and they were tasty!

Fishing off the dock on Friday night!

Boat ride!

Hanging out on the boat cruise!

 The bass was one of the first fish that anyone caught--and then we just keep reeling them in after that!  Jack and Nora weren't quite as interested in fishing--they still had a great time and enjoyed being on the boat and holding the fishing poles for awhile, but they also had fun running around the boat and goofing off too!

Bishop's bass!

Captain Nora

 We spent time fishing off the dock too and Bishop caught quite a few off the dock as well. He even put his own worm on, and cast himself (he just needed help getting the fish off the hook.....and so did I) :).

 Nora absolutely adores Andrew! She loved making him smile and playing with him!

 We took the boat out again on Saturday morning and caught a few fish, but definitely not as many as Friday night. Bishop was brave enough to hold the fish and he was excited about that!

Holding his first fish! Just a little guy!

Just posing on the chairs! Ha!

 Saturday was such a beautiful day! It was warm and sunny and we decided to go tubing! Nina and Jack went first and so Bishop and I followed after them. The water was pretty cold and since we were going behind the pontoon we knew it wouldn't be too crazy of a ride, so we wore our clothes.

We got started nice and slow.....but never sped up and that resulted in our tube nose diving into the water. We both were completely underwater and I was on top of Bishop, which scared me the most. I was afraid he wouldn't be able to get back up to the surface of the water. And the water was COLD!!!! He did awesome and got right back to the tube and held on until Luke pulled us in. It was definitely scary for a few minutes, but we survived. I'm afraid it may have scared Bishop and he may never want to tube again!

All smiles before we took off!

We were getting water in the tube and I was getting nervous!

 We had a few "memory making moments" during the weekend. Tubing was definitely one of them.....another was the fishing pole that we dropped in the lake after being on the boat for about 10 minutes and the other was making dinner on Saturday night. Luke and Jesse took the fishing boat out on Saturday afternoon with Nora--and it took them longer than we expected. Nina and I were making dinner and I put the steaks on the grill. The steaks were on for about 2 minutes when they started on fire.....and we couldn't get the fire out! I turned off the burners and the gas, but it was so hot it was really hard to get the steaks off the grill. We moved the grill away from the porch as I was so afraid it was going to burn it down. We finally got the charred steaks off the grill and the fire FINALLY went out! Dinner was ruined, so we ate leftovers instead! Whew-never a dull moment!

Catching fish on Sunday morning

 The cabin was built in 2011 and is absolutely beautiful! We had 2 bedrooms upstairs for our family and Friday night Nora slept with Luke while Bishop slept with me.....until Nora fell out of bed....then Luke got the bed to himself! We switched it up on Sat night and Nora slept with me and I piled pillows up on the side of the bed...we all got a better nights sleep Sat night!

Relaxing on Sunday morning!

Nora sporting my glasses!

Sunday was another beautiful day! We took the boat out, did some more fishing and Nina took Jack and Nora on the tube, by the dock. Bishop had no interest in getting back in the tube.....and I don't blame him, I wasn't that eager to get back in either! We stayed to watch the Vikings game, which started at 3:25 and then headed home--the kids slept the whole way home and transferred to bed when we got home.

It was such a fun weekend-everyone had a great time and the weather was so nice, especially for the last weekend in Sept. Thanks Nina and Jesse for inviting us!