Cabin Adventures: part 4- Family, Food, Fishing and ... Dogs?

My Gramma's husband, Ron, and my uncle Dave are both pretty handy in the kitchen. And when I say handy, I mean awesome. Since both of them were there, we never had a shortage of good food.

Did I mention that there was corn? I mean, lots and lots of corn? My mom was making us pledge ears because we had so much.

Ron's chicken tacos

My Uncle loves to fish. And he'll take anyone who wants to go. And he's patient, which is essential when anyone from my family wants to go fishing.

Casey is my mom's very loyal, semi-psychotic dog who made major strides during this vacation. She made her very first dog friend, Hannah.

Hannah was one of the neighbor's dogs who spent most of the time around our cabin. It might have had something to do with the fact we fed her sandwiches and eggs...

When we first got to the cabin, my aunt and Rach had gone to the shelter and came back with two dogs. We washed them in the lake, took them for a boat ride, went on a walk, and fed them before taking them back to shelter. And Rachel fell in love with this puppy and by the end of the week, decided to adopt her. And after spending 2 days going over hundreds of names, Rach decided on Tara.

And despite all the drama that comes with my family, I love them. And it's nice to be near them.

Cabin Adventures: part 3-Settlers of Catan

My family loves to play board games. Our new favorite game is called Settlers of Catan. I'm not any good at describing how to play games, but I can tell you that it is awesome.

things are getting intense

TJ had a little too much fun with the game pieces

Cabin Adventures: part 2- Water Skiing and Mamboing

When my family spends a week on a lake with a ski boat, it's inevitable that these two things are going to happen.

My Uncle Dave is the one who usually drives the boat. He has the highest success rate of flipping us.

That green raft is named Mambo.

TJ and Kevin

Me and Rach

Sporting the stylish life jackets

"Look Ma, I can ski!"

TJ's attempt to drop one of his skis.

Cabin Adventures: part 1- Noodling

For the past few years, my mom's side of the family has gone up to northern Minnesota in August, and spent a couple weeks at my uncle's lake home. As for myself, I've always spent summers working at least one job, and I've never stayed at the cabin more than 3 days. At least until now.

I picked TJ up at the airport on Wednesday, (after I had already been in Wisconsin for a week), and the next morning we left, not to leave the cabin until a week later. It was awesome.

A tradition that has been started is a little something called the 'Noodle 5000'. This is where someone will boat a bunch of us out into the middle of the lake, we grab a noodle, jump in, and swim all the way back to the cabin. The swim back to the cabin makes for some good family bonding time and the bonus of a little exercise.

Wisconsin: part 2- Sarah, Grace, and Jessi

I've written a few posts about my little friend, Jessi. I used to be her 'therapy', (as she would call me), back when I worked as a play therapist. I miss this girl a lot.

So seeing her and her family was definitely a highlight of the trip. I cannot even begin to tell you how much this girl has changed over the last year. When I saw her in May, I literally cried. She's grown so much - physically, verbally, emotionally. I still can't believe she used to be the little girl I would push around in a stroller when she was 3.

We spent an afternoon down at Irvine Park where the girls could play in the fountain and look at the animals. We had a blast.

Wisconsin: part 1 - Jenny and Luke

Jenny and Luke's Wedding

The first 3 days of my trip were spent in southern Wisconsin getting ready for/being apart of my friend Jenny's wedding. I was very honored when she asked me to be in her wedding, and then the fact I had planned on being in the Midwest around the time she chose the date of her wedding was perfect. And I was stoked that my boss let me have 2 weeks off of work.

I could not have been any more grateful for being able to be there. I got the chance to spend time with Jenny, help out with wedding details, and catch up with some old friends.

The wedding itself was beautifully done, but it was Luke and Jenny that made the wedding beautiful.

feeling torn

This happened the last time I visited Wisconsin back in May.

Torn between two places. Two places far away from each other. Both places have things that the other place doesn't have. Both feel like home. But then again, neither do.

New friends. Old friends.

Evergreens. Oak Trees.

Mountains. Rolling hills.

His family. My family.

New church family. Old church family.

marmots. cows.

And in the back of my mind, I know that God might not have either of these places in mind.