I woke up early Saturday morning and debated whether to lay still in that amazing bed in the upstairs loft, or try and steal what I could of the quiet and chance to read by myself before anyone else woke up. I decided to tiptoe very quietly downstairs, turn on the fireplace, and wrap up with my quilt and book I had been especially saving for our weekend away. I turned on the oven and baked up the breakfast casserole I had prepared the week before, successfully attempted my first pot of French press coffee, and snuggled up on the couch with Daisy Jones and the Six. I fully expected my early bird Cruz to join me within minutes of opening my book (isn't that always the case?), but much to my surprise I enjoyed an entire hour of morning all to myself. And sweet little Mila and her bed head greeted me first just as that casserole started to smell.
We had no view of the east due to a big bluff and a road high up above us, but I loved how we could watch the sun expose the gold trees out our west window. And the frost that covered everything gave me glimpses of getting snowed in here. It would be the most perfect place to get snowed in.
Once everybody was up, we had breakfast casserole, cider donuts courtesy of the Shaws, and coffee and cocoa. The kids asked if they could have hot cocoa again later, and Beau said maybe even two more times.
The rest of the morning was slow. We started a puzzle, finished our movie, I finished my book, and then we all climbed in that jacuzzi for a morning soak before showers.
And then there was our afternoon. The weather was once again perfect for a fall afternoon around the fire. We had butternut squash soup and sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies and Honeycrisp apples, then went for a walk along the creek to explore the land. We played two-on-two football, sipped Jefferson cider and more hot cocoa around a fire, and sat on tree stumps and talked and talked. Then we decided that although it sounded quite all right to have dinner in the cabin again, a burger and French fries sounded like heaven. We drove into town just in time for a show-stopping Wisconsin sunset, fried cheese curds, pull tabs, and shake a day. Four little Iowa kids and a whole lot of Badger fans.
We ended our night with one more jacuzzi hang before pjs and Harry Potter before bed. I think we made it two pages before Mila had moved on and Cruz was sawing logs on my shoulder!
And Sunday morning, cinnamon rolls and more cocoa and packing up all the things too soon. We were so sad to leave, but rested and grateful for the chance to bottle up the goodness from our weekend and sprinkle it throughout our own spaces back home. And I'm pretty sure I had enough to last me through the rest of the year.
But we weren't quite finished yet! Sunday was beautiful and we decided a day to revisit some of my childhood stops would be a good ending to our weekend. We started with Cabelas to show the kids the animal display, went to Starks for whiskey and Titos, and from parking lot all the way around and back to our car at Pikes Peak. And then we finally timed a St. Olaf's famous tenderloin just right, an endeavor we've been trying to accomplish since I was a kid. The tenderloins were just okay, but the buildup may have tainted them a bit. ;)
Our Jorgensen fall getaway was a success and I'm certain we'll be back to play house in that beautiful cabin again one day. And while I'll know to expect the beauty of the driftless area and that pretty cabin, I'll also expect to soak up all the sweet details that surface when together is our only aim. Details like Mila calling Cabelas a "Spanish name", Cruz's imagination coming to life as he and Mila "fished" in the creek, and the four of us panting and laughing as we punted the football and tackled the kick-returner straight to the ground. Details like how crisp the air felt around us as the steam rolled off that jacuzzi, the taste of whiskey and cinnamon simple syrup around that fire, and the tears in Cruz's eyes at the end of We Bought a Zoo. Laughter from the tree swing, Mila playing school in the upstairs loft, Beau struggling through that impossible puzzle that the rest of us lost interest in. Details that made us laugh, made us shed a tear, made us really thankful for each other.
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