The next morning I woke to the sound of bustling activity on the other side of the bedroom door. I sat up groggily and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It wasn’t yet dawn, but someone was already up and moving about in the shared lounge. From the little huffs and grunts that reached me, it sounded like heavy items were being shifted about. I listened a while longer, straining my ears, and heard the cabin door swing open on...

That evening we all sat around the dining table; Mom, Dad, Cadie, and me. My parents' hike had, somewhat predictably, fizzled out into a stroll over a couple of hills and into the local village, no more than a few kilometers from our cabin. Though, to hear my dad tell the story, their little morning ramble was almost certainly on a par with Edmund Hillary’s ascent of Mount Everest, if not slightly more impressive, all thi...

Next morning I woke with a head full of rocks and somebody shaking me roughly by the shoulder. I had no idea what time it was, but daylight streamed in through the open drapes and Cadie was there leaning over me. “Hey, Sleepy Head,” she hissed in my ear, giving my shoulder another shake. “Wake up already.” “Ugh… Leave me alone,” I groaned, swatting feebly back at my annoying sister. What was she thinking, waking me up whe...

One summer our parents decided to take the family on an "off the grid" vacation. No TV. No internet. No portable consoles. No phones! "You guys never spend any quality time together these days," they told my sister and me. "And when you do see each other all you seem to do is fight. This vacation is a chance for the two of you to reconnect, start over and forge a new relationship." So off we all went to a cabin in the mid...