i left my heart at rainbow lake

Happy Friday dear friends.
I hope that you had a lovely week and that this weekend brings you exciting times.
We just got back from 3 days at a cabin that is owned by the recreation group of Winslow's work and let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing!
We went up with another family (Sarah from my first guest blogger post) and we had to hike in to the cabin from where we parked our cars. It was a bout a 45min hike and it was pretty tough because we had to carry everything in with us (including crying toddlers in backpack carriers). But despite the long hike in, we still enjoyed ourselves and knew that a delicious urkey dinner awaited us upon our arrival.
The cabin is situated in Kluane National Park (just outside of Haines Junction, Yukon) and is the home to some of the biggest mountains in Canada. Our cabin was right on Rainbow Lake, a pristine crystal clear lake...just beautiful.
It was just us up there, there are no other cabins on the lake, and it felt so amazing for it just to be us. I caught myself a few times just in awe of the silence that surrounded us and of the amazingly breathtaking views that we got to see.
Some of the highlights from our trip would be the amazing thanksgiving turkey dinner that Sarah and I both made back at home and that we bought brought in with us, the fantastic bonfire that the boys built up and that we enjoyed all afternoon, watching the little ones enjoy themselves outside, playing scrabble and drinking some yummy drinks once the little ones went to bed, waking up having coffee and good breakfasts, sitting around and telling stories, taking a canoe ride in the icy lake with my hubby while Noah was watched by Sarah and Rich and eating baked brie while sipping Bailey's laced hot chocolates!
Some of the more funny stories would include having to use the outhouse in minus zero temps, brushing our teeth with snow, and using the 2nd cabin (there was no heat in there) as a refrigerator because the actual refrigerator in our cabin was broken.
All in all, this little trip of ours to the cabin was just what I needed to help myself feel a little bit more at home here in the Yukon. It's no secret that I have had a few rough days since moving here of really missing "back home", but this trip definitely helped me to feel that the Yukon is now where I live and play and that I can actually really like it here. Getting away from the day to day stuff, and having a bit of a vacation with our new friends was just what we all needed. Amazing memories were made and oddly I left Rainbow Lake with a feeling of accomplishment. Maybe it was the fact that we had to hike in and out of camp with toddlers and tons of gear, maybe it was that Sarah and I pulled off an awesome Thanksgiving dinner, maybe it was because we all survived 3 days without any running water, maybe it was because everything went off without a hitch, what ever the reason I felt really good that we all enjoyed ourselves and that the trip was a success.

From this trip I will take away the beautiful memories of snowy mountains, a just frozen over lake, a warm and cozy cabin, the sounds of laughing (and sometimes crying) toddlers, time spent hanging out and getting to know our new friends a bit better, and uninterrupted time spent together.

Hope you enjoythe photos. * Just a side note- it was not nearly as cold as it looks in some of the photos. It was usually just around zero in the days and probably -5 at night we just ended up with tons of snow!