Labor Day 2020

Labor Day 2020 is one for the books. 
COVID19 prevented Ben/Jon/Hope from traveling and joining us. 
Regan had to stay back to play in a showcase softball tournament, which meant Ryan did too. 

Grandma Jan and I debated for months whether we should go, considered cancelling many times over again, and ultimately decided to give it a go. 

It was a much needed break from the isolation of home, and considering the gorgeous weather, we were able to spend every waking hour outside. It was heavenly! 

Grandma rented a pontoon for the weekend and we ate lunches on the boat, went swimming in the middle of the lake and cruised around having a blast. I became a pro at docking that monstrous thing :) 

Lincoln was exhausted every night, sleeping in the last day til 8:30am (that's a record!). 
He played so hard all day that by 9pm, he would announce he was ready for bed and then say "I love sleep" as he passed out. 

And who wouldn't be tired after cruising around on the tube in the afternoon. These kiddos pick up right where they left off each Labor Day. They love spending time together and creating new memories. They're getting more daring on the tube too so it's fun to pull them and watch them fly through the air! 

The girls took out the bike one evening when the waters were super calm. Apparently the bike is hard to navigate because they didn't venture too far. But the giggles were heard throughout the resort. 

We watched the most beautiful sunsets on Nest Lake. I love a good sunset after a fun day.

Grandma and I taught Lincoln how to bait his own hook. 

He even uses a swiss army knife to cut the worms shorter, then hooks them. 

Win for Grandma and me! 

Because this boy loves to fish. He's working on his patience, but he sure loves to cast and sit and cast and sit. 

Jumping from the pontoon was so much fun, and an excellent social distancing activity since it was only a few of us on the boat. 

Dock fishing, where we could spot the sunnies sometimes; too bad they would nibble off the worm and leave Lincoln with an empty hook! 

Each night, Lincoln and Lila went out frog hunting while the rest of us sat around the fire. Every time they would come back to the fire, they would show us more and more frogs. It's like they were multiplying! At one point, there had to be more than 15 frogs in their white pail. 

(now you know whey we taught him to bait his hook?!) 
This boy loves fishing. 

Why yes, it was chilly in the early morning cruises, and I had to wear my ear band to stay warm. 

And in true COVID pandemic style, there's a canister of wipes in the picture. 

Sunset tubing, we tore up the lake one night. It was so calm and peaceful until the kids got out there and screamed in delight with every figure 8 we turned! 

Our crew was smaller this year. 
But the memories will last forever. 

I love to kayak on a warm summer day. 

With Lincoln being old enough, I felt confident to take the kids out a little further than we have in the past. His little arms did quite well paddling away on his own. 

We missed having Regan in the annual photo of cousins. Hard to believe we've been doing this trip for as long as these kiddos have been alive. 

Peace out grandma, where's my fishing pole. 

Grandma lost her hat in the wind during a boat ride. This made for quite a good story! As I quickly whipped the pontoon around (PS: those things don't whip around!), Sidney changed Lincoln into a swim suit. We tried to get close enough to grab the hat out of the water, but no success and we nearly ran it over before I kicked it into reverse to avoid it going through the motor. Instead, Lincoln jumped in and swam to the hat, saving it from drowning! 

Throughout the weekend, I "watched" Regan's games online; thankful to be able to "see" how she was doing. 

More jumps off the pontoon. I love how these pictures turned out! What a fun afternoon. 

Meanwhile, Regan was back at home getting to know her new team having just formed teams again 2 weeks ago. 
I'll have to play catch up figuring out their names! 

We had massive storms one night. I knew they were coming but there wasn't much I could do. So just as I fell asleep, I started hearing hail and it got louder and louder. I pulled up the radar and knew it would be a while before it passed! 
Good thing we didn't seem to have any damage to our vehicles, but it sure made for conversation the next day. 

Thanks again Grandma! 
We had the most fabulous time creating memories and finding some joy in these crazy pandemic times. 
We love you! 

 

Lake Life 2018

warning! heavy photo post follows

As we have nearly every Labor Day weekend for the past 15 years, we headed to a resort with my dad's brother and his family for the long weekend. 

We ventured to a new resort this year, one that had more water activities for the kids than even they could've dreamed! It was certainly the most entertained they have ever been at the lake (in the water)....and we all loved every second of it! 

One of Lincoln's (and Regan's) favorite parts of this annual event, is to go fishing. From the boat or from the dock, they just like to fish. 

Regan found a nice spot to perch on the pontoon and her/Hope laid there for over an hour one day just chatting the day away. 

One of the many fun water activities: a water bike! 

They looked mildly ridiculous pedaling around on this thing, but we could hear their giggles on shore and I loved hearing the memories being made. 

These kayaks were awesome. See that island out there in the distance? There's another one a bit further over on the left. Hope and Regan decided to go for a l-o-n-g excursion one day and ventured out around BOTH islands. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell us just how far they planned to go.....We watched as they went further and further away from the resort. We watched as we assumed they were lost (it's a very long way and can be hard to remember exactly where you started from when you get so far away). Ben had to eventually drive the boat out to see if they needed to be rescued. Nope. They were just taking their time on the lake and enjoying the beautiful warm sunny day. 

Shhhh, don't tell anyone that Uncle Ben lets his nieces and nephews take the wheel and drive us around. By the end of the weekend, Lincoln was driving it solo (Ben was sitting beside him). We laughed as Lincoln would repeat over and over that we were "full rottle" (aka: Full Throttle).....keeping in mind it goes maybe 4 mph :) 

He liked to shift it from idle into gear. He channeled his inner Titanic movie self and hollered "Full Speed Ahead!" as he shifted into gear!
Love that boy. 

Huge Thanks to my brother for giving these kiddos this awesome memory. I remember being a little tyke sitting on my own dad's lap "driving" the boat.

I have no idea what type of lesson she was getting, but she adored driving the boat just as much as Lincoln. 

Regan was content at the front of the boat anytime we were anchored. I have to admit, it's a nice spot to catch some rays. 

More fishing. 

Bless my mom's heart (and Ben and my cousin's husband) for worming, re-worming and de-fishing all weekend long.
Ick, not my favorite part of lake life. 

Getting ready to go "Full Rottle!"

At one point, I looked over at Lincoln and honestly flashed back to my 4 year old self. I can actually remember leaning over the back of our boat growing up, watching the wake as we slowly made our way.
There's just something peaceful about seeing the water rush through the propeller as we sped away. 

Some of these most beautiful sunsets happened out over the lake that weekend. The colors were stunning and I probably have a total of 500 sunset pictures between my phone and my camera.

She enjoyed her lake life, and I suspect she would live on the water if it were possible. 

A trip to the lake isn't complete without several rounds of tubing. Lincoln joined in the fun this year, taking a turn sitting at the bottom of the tube. He was pretty apprehensive, not sure he wanted to go. Smart boy went his first round with Sidney and Olivia (neither who want a rough ride), but eventually jumped over to ride with the wild ones! 

We had to take him out at one point because these two were itching to be flipped...boy did they get close! 

I was spotter one afternoon and could not believe these two silly girls. I went tubing for probably 20 years of my life, and never once did I think to actually turn around!? They disliked the water spraying in their faces so they rode their entire ride backwards.
Goof balls. 

This crew makes my heart full. 

I have no fewer than 10 pictures on my camera of Lincoln making a tiger face. He cooperates for any picture, but then says "let me do a tiger" and proceeds to tell me to take his picture. 

The sandy beach area was well used by our group. The kids spent a good chunk of everyday jumping around from lillypads to water trampolines to slides to floating docks. None of them terribly bothered by the fact that it was a lake...with fish, and weeds underfoot. 

Regan was trying to do a handstand on the lilly pad and I snapped a picture at just the right right. She looks like she's levitating!

The fun moments and memories made were plentiful. 

We've moved through several lakes, experienced a lot of Labor Day fun, and I'm so glad to have these 4 by my side each year. 

More tiger Lincoln....

An extra special place for my mom who keeps this tradition going for us (and her) even though we're missing a key person in our lives. Miss having dad around at the lake, giving his brother grief, watching him venture out for early morning fishing and always knowing how to fix something like a boat or a circuit board or a heater. 

More tiger Lincoln. 

He had no clue his sisters were behind him making tiger faces too :) 

We all are counting down the days until next year, knowing it is always a favorite for all of us. 

It's always bittersweet, and Sidney picked up on that this year "I love going to the lake, but I don't like that it means summer is over". 

Got that right kiddo. 

Now, onto school....

Last week of summer: Part 2 of 2. Labor Day weekend 2017

Our family looks forward to Labor Day weekend all year long. That's not even exaggerating. Each year as we drive home from the lake, there are sounds of sadness echoing throughout indicating it's going to be another 12 months before Labor Day returns. Honest. And then, every spring, the kids start to bounce around, eager for warm weather, and it's generally not long before we hear "I can't wait to go to the lake!". They love it that much. And we do too. 

So when my dad passed away this spring, one of the first questions we had to field was "will we still get to go to the lake?". Pulled on our heartstrings like you wouldn't believe. My mom (and brother) assured the kids that "yes, indeed", we would be going back to the lake. 

I'm not going to lie. It was hard on the 3 of us (my mom, brother and myself). I would imagine they did the same as I, and had a few moments of deep sadness with an ugly cry, thinking about being at the lake without dad. To give a brief history, my parents brought us to a variety of resorts across northern MN while we were growing up. Often along with the same crew that we now spend Labor Day weekend. Hence, doing something that we knew he would so dearly love, was difficult to do without Papa beside us. But, we all pulled up our bootstraps, and if for no other reason than the kids, we put on a smile and packed up for the cabin. 

We ventured back to Lake Osakis to create new memories and reminisce at our old ones. We had a dreary night upon arrival, and my uncle Gary later admitted he wondered what his brother (my dad) was thinking as we all headed to the cabin just in time for a downpour.....imagine he would have said something along the lines of "good luck guys!" So we hung around inside for most of the night and the kids enjoyed the indoor pool. 

Thankfully, the remainder of our weekend had spectacular weather. I can't remember a Labor Day weekend with a string of gorgeous-sunny-beautiful days like we experienced this year. Because my parents did such an amazing job of showing us how much fun lake life is while we were children, my goal is to do the same for our kids. It seems that being at the lake should be something along the lines of: fish, swim, tube, boat ride, repeat. Toss in a nightly campfire, complete with s'mores, and you've got yourself the epitome of a perfect Labor Day weekend. So we did just that. 

My brother opted to rent a pontoon for the weekend and boy did we enjoy being out on the lake together. It was a first for me (I've never been on a pontoon!), and a first for the kids as he let them drive!! It didn't come without a little fiasco of it's own when we couldn't get it started Saturday. Once again, we looked up to the sky and wondered what dad would be thinking/telling us. Later in the day, when Ryan/Shane tried to take out the kids in Gary's boat for an afternoon of tubing, they experienced their own boat debacle. This was worse because they were not tied up to the dock and instead were quickly being pulled out with the wind. Ryan later admitted that someday we'll look back at this year and say "remember the shit show with the boats that first year we didn't have Leo with us?". We sure missed him in so many ways-not only emotionally, but also his expertise, his sense of humor (he was known to dance like crazy inside a cabin), and his overall presence. 

We tried our best to have a good time, and I know the kids were beyond thrilled to be at the lake over Labor Day. I, for one, am happy to have that "first" behind us. I'm glad we went, we did truly have fun, and I know we will all look forward to our next trip to the lake. 

 

...until next year.