The 3rd Annual Pippin Family Labor Day Get Together at the Cabin

Every year on Labor Day weekend, the Pippin family gets together at the Pippin family cabin. On of the seemingly favorite yearly activities of the grandkids is the BB gun shooting. We line up pop cans on tree stumps and shoot them off. The kids take turns and, under careful supervision, try to shoot off the cans (they're getting better each year). Here's Travis taking aim. In the photo from L to R, is Eric, Abby, Christopher, Ryan, Travis, and Carson.

Angela got into the action and shot a pop can that had been shaken up, ready to explode when a BB hit it. If you click on the photo, you can see the can exploding. Even Lucas couldn't distract his sharp shooter mom.
It's also tradition that the Graff family (Angela's mother's parents and on down) gets together for a reunion at a park. A tradition there is the rocket launcher. Travis would play this all day if he could. This year the laucher fired off two at a time. The photo below shows two firing upward. The rockets are made of strong construction paper and foam tips, perfect for the kids to try and catch on their decent from about 100 feet up in the air.

Here's Angela and her Graff grandparents. Grandma Graff is holding Marcus.

Back at the cabin, here's Travis and Lucas posing while we were out hiking around on the cabin property. The boys spent a lot of time outdoors that weekend.

Brian got to start fulfilling a lifelong dream of his, to build a tree house for his kids. Brian selected a grouping of 6-8 oak trees and started framing the floor of the tree house (see photo below). Then this past weekend, Brian brought up more wood and spent another 6 hours building it. The floor is nearly completed now and spans about 5 by 8 rectangular feet. The next big step is building a roof to protect the floor. Brian was able to stand up on the new floor so hopefully it will last a few years. The kids were excited to spend the day out in the tree house with their dad. Brian bought some simple pulleys and rope for the kids to raise and lower things from the tree house floor to the groud. He plans to build a rope bridge to the tree house at some point.