One More Time Before School Starts

I'm torn. I'm loving having most of the children back in school {just me & Peter at home}. Yet, I miss their company and our non schedule summer days, especially the days spent at Fish Lake.

We made it back to Fish Lake the first week in August. The first day John took us on a walk down to the lake and showed us where the cabin used to sit. This picture shows the exact spot. It was a small tiny wood cabin made by the Dutch owner out of wood. All the interior walls are knotty wood pine panelling. Adorable. The fireplace was made out of lava rocks adorned by a deer head with antlers. I've wondered how real hunters feel about the Hallen use of the antlers??? I'm sure they're offended. My favorite feature of the cabin is the Dutch door. Love it.

Then John's family purchased it from the Dutchman. They had to move it off the lake because the lake was getting too polluted from all the cabins along it's shores. So up it went a quarter of a mile on Vale in a little clearing surrounded by quaking aspens and pine trees. Nineteen years ago, when I first started visiting we could see the lake from the cabin's front windows. Now the trees have grown and we only see patches of blue water. John threatens that the next time he goes up he's taking along the chainsaw to take down the "dead" trees. We could use the firewood but not the hefty fine...

The famous "H" rock shows and reminds us where the old Hallen dock used to pier out over the lake. John spent many summers fishing with cousins for perch and fishing out old grandpa Melvin when he would fall into the cold lake. Grandma Rose always said that the reason they invested in this cabin was to build strong family ties. What a worthwhile and successful investment. This time up we met the Dana side of my family, minus Kenney & his family.

Memorial times with them were: the walk down by Twin Creeks, good food, another walk/hike on the trail north of the lake, making flower clips for our hair, and the endless hours watching the cousins play outside with sticks. Who needs toys when you have good old fashion sticks? And looking for the neighbors. This year it was a mother deer with two little "Bambi's".

Thank you Grandma Rose for your foresight and wanting a place for families to spend time together. Fish Lake. Hallen's Haven.

And the Winner is...?

Did I keep all eight of you in suspense?I know. I know. I'm tardy in my announcement of my give-away. Way tardy. A week over due. But I just ran out of time before we left on a get-away. Cheryl and I had to make salsa which took all morning. When the Roma's are ripe life stops for the canning of the homegrown, homemade salsa. And boy did it turn out good this year.

Seriously, this was so fun. I loved reading everybody's favorite post and why. You are all very sweet and kind. I just might make an apron for every-eight of you. I can't wait to do another give-away 'one day soon'.

So the winner is.....and I wanted you all to win but there can only be one winner...

Carmen from Washington.
I have to tell a little about Carmen so you won't hate her for winning this one and only bright cherry apron. I've know her since we were three and living in Chandler, Arizona. She is one of my hero's {for many reasons}. These are the things that come to my mind when I think of this dear friend. Her smile. Always smiling. It always brightened up my day. She never said a bad thing about anybody. Really, it's true. I just sat here thinking over all our conversations and I don't remember a single bad or negative thing she's ever said about another human being. That's amazing. She was kind to all regardless of social group. She was a cheerleader all through junior high and high school, the best one. And she's still my personal cheerleader. Everybody should have their own personal cheerleader. I could go on and on. Visit her blog and you'll see what I mean.

This is so funny. I just went to her blog to link it to this post and her last post was about how she didn't win the photo contest that she was going for. Then she said that she hasn't won anything since she was in third grade...So funny.

Well Carmen, I hope this makes your day. Not that it's the greatest thing to win. But winning something, anything, is fun.

Thanks again everybody for playing along. And so sorry for the delay in the announcement. Hope you play again next time.