I grew up spending most of my Labor Days at the cabin in Columbine. Actually, I think I was 15 before I missed a 4th of July or Labor Day at the cabin, (unless the mountain was closed due to fire danger) and the only thing that could tear me away was FBLA Nationals at Disney World... Once we started having babies and moved out-of-state, making it to one of the big celebrations/family reunions/fun weekends got a lot more complicated, especially since my kids aren't great sleepers in the best of circumstances. Also, we started rotating holidays with my cousins' families, since there's just too many of us to all sleep comfortably up there together anyway. So I've missed more than I've made over the last 10 years. But the draw is still there, and when the 4th or Labor Day rolls around, I'm always a little discontent if I can't make it up there, at least for the day Saturday.
This last Labor Day was not our turn for the cabin, but a bunch of us were getting together anyway (everyone except Phil and Sophie, which were expecting their 3rd baby within weeks, and Jeremy, who had patients, and who always benefits from a few days of quiet while the rest of us are gone) and decided to go up for the day and make an outing of it. I'm not sure that my dad's ever gone up for the day on such a busy weekend (not his favorite) when we didn't even have the cabin. But we set up "camp" up next to the old church cabin concrete, and had fun, even with a handful of babies and lots of dirt.
The trip up was a little exciting. Shawn is not a good car sleeper, and I had quite the time getting him to go to sleep. I had 3 different kinds of pacifiers with me (none of which he had any interest in), but finally got him to accept one to fall asleep with. The rough road after the pavement ends always helps with that. Reilly had been excited to hike to the tower, and somehow it ended up being me, my dad (who carried Shawn, thank heavens - I'm not in hiking-at-10,000-feet shape), Reilly, Jaina (both of which did great), Justin (Emily's, 4.5 - he did pretty well as long as we kept encouraging him to keep moving), and Katy. Oh, Katy. She will not be making that hike again (with me) until she's at least 6. She did it, but there was much complaining and dramatics involved.
All in all it was a nice day. Fun to see some friends and relatives, enjoy the beautiful weather, and let my kids run around on the same dirt I've spent so much time on. :) It was also nice to be in Pima for a day or two afterwards, and get to visit with my sweet Grandma. All in all, worth the long drive!
(oh, and there may or may not have been an hour of two of driving around on all the back roads of Pima -minus kids or grandparents- setting off some small to medium fireworks and then all jumping in the truck and driving really fast somewhere else any time we saw lights...And no, we don't really all fit in the cab of the truck.)
