No Place Like Home

I'm sorry I haven't written in awhile. I have had a lot of things that I have wanted to write about, but I couldn't choose which one I wanted to talk about first. And then last night, Otto and I were talking about the summer and the topic of this post hit me like a freight train.
A couple of weeks ago when I was calling my family's house my brother got on the phone and asked me "Megan, what do you like most about the cabin?" Without hesitating I answered that my favorite part about the cabin is spending time with my family. Apparently that was what Jason was wanting to hear and he was thrilled that I said it. However, I don't think that he quite understood what I was trying to say.
The cabin, to me, is my home. When I go there my spirit feels connected to my past and to my future all at the same time. As I sit on the deck and look at the beach that my mom, Grandpa and Uncle Brant cleared away when my mom was a teenager I giggle as I recollect the stories of how she was punished for going out with her friends by being ordered to haul wood up the mountain all day long. I look at the rocks with their holes eroded into them and recall endless summers playing on the beach and pretending those rocks were my kitchen and spending hours "cooking" in my kitchen. Memories of my sisters pretending to be the Little Mermaid on those rocks also come flooding back to me as I show my little girls how they used to pose on the rocks and sing the songs from that Disney movie.
Whenever we pull up to the marina and load the boat to go across the lake to get to our cabin memories of going across the lake in storms always make me nervous that the weather will be stormy and I will have to do it again. Other memories of being allowed to sit on the top of the front of the old Sea Ray boat to help weigh it down make me smile as I remember feeling so excited to be in my favorite place in the whole world.
I feel connected to my past and linked to my future when I go to the cabin. I had my first kiss at the cabin. I have grown up with a lot of the people who still visit their cabins every summer. I have had the most spiritual church meetings held at various cabins along the lake. My favorite Sundays have been where the church meetings are an hour long, and the visiting that takes place afterwards is just as long. There are Steak dinners followed by peaches and cream that have long been a tradition. There are tube wars, water skiing and wakeboarding lessons. The summer just wouldn't be the same if I didn't spend some of it trying to bribe my own children to jump off of the cliffs or try wakeboarding or tubing.
So, when I say that I love to spend time with my family at the cabin, it is more than that. I love to spend time with my roots. I love to go to the place of my childhood and create memories with my own children. I love to sit on the dock at nighttime with my sisters and ponder the mysteries of the Universe. I love to watch my mother be happier and more relaxed than she is in any other place. I love to go home to the cabin. It is a place of great memories for me, and it holds a special place in my heart. My only hope is that if my mother ever decides that she wants to sell it, that I have enough money to buy it from her. Because if I were to ever lose the place that I feel more at home than any other place, I would be sad. I would miss it more than anyone would know. It is my home. As Dorothy put it "There's no place like home."

Cabin Pics

That's my big wakeboarder! I am so proud of her for trying to wakeboard! We are having a little competition between the two of them and they are competing for a prize. . . . so far it's working!!!
It always pleases me when I see a perfectly cooked marshmallow! Way to go Dayln!!!

Fun. Fire. Family. What more could you ask for???

It's so nice to be able to hang out with your family in the evenings after all of the watersports are done.

Cool fire hey??? I bought something that makes the fire change color from the dollar store, and it worked great!!!

Abby is a little waterbug! Just like I was when I was her age.

Uncle Jason is always fun to have around. There is never a dull moment when he is there!

Suzanne tried to save Jason from getting a sunburn, but I think that she was a little too late.

Abby loves to wakeboard, but she cries every time she tries. It is actually pretty fun to watch!

Anne tried wakeboarding for the first time this year. She did awesome!!! She got up, but she was too scared to actually stand. . . we will work on that the next time we go out there.

This picture pretty much sums up Lee's personality. He is just this huge, happy baby!

I thought that this picture was HILARIOUS!! It looks as though Treyden is pulling on Lee's ear and Lee is reacting. . . but Trey's hand actually isn't even close to Lee's ear and Lee was just talking. These two are going to have fun growing up together!

Catching fishies is one of our favorite things to do at the cabin.

Anne doesn't like water in her face, and so she has as many floatation devices as she can possibly find so that her face doesn't get wet.

Caroline is also such a waterbug!

We love tube rides!!

I think that we were going a bit fast on this one!

Ha ha ha ha Jenna and I were playing Rook against Dayln and Amanda and Dayln started the round with a really weird card. When Jenna, Amanda and I questioned it he told us that if we could see his hand then we would understand why he lead with that card. So we decided that he should take a picture of it instead so that it would forever live on.

Cute family hey?

I snuck in a turn holding Trey when nobody was looking!

So now you can see why the cabin is my most favorite places on earth. The scenery is beautiful. It is only a 5 hour drive away (most of the time). I get to be there with my family. It is completely secluded. And we always have so much fun hanging out there together.

I'm Off

Well, I'm off to the cabin. I am still nervous about going, but that isn't going to stop me. (Actually it almost has a couple of times, but I have a wonderful husband who has been amazing through this whole thing.) I am excited to see my little nephew and spend the week with him. I am excited to have fun with my brother and his wife and I am sooooo looking forward to seeing my 2 youngest sisters (WOW!! That made them sound really young!!!). We don't have any sort of internet access out there, or phone lines, and even cell phone reception is iffy, so I won't be posting for about 10 days or so. You may not miss my posts, but I sure will miss writing them. There is something that is quite relaxing about being able to write down your thoughts every day. . . good thing I am bringing my journal to the cabin or I just might go crazy!!!
Love you all!! Talk to you soon!!!

Nerves

I have to say that I am so excited because I am going to the cabin on Friday!! I wrote an entire post on how much I love the cabin earlier this year. It is one of my most favorite places in the entire world. To me nothing is more beautiful than waking up in the morning and seeing the sun glitter off the water, or going down to the dock at night and staring at the stars with my sisters. There is something wonderful and magical about the cabin that I just don't feel anywhere else.
I am both really excited and scared to death about going out to the cabin for the long weekend. You see this year my entire family is going to be together for the August long weekend. And normally that isn't a problem. I work really hard to make sure that my kids are well behaved, clean and as quiet as they can be, but I am not perfect and they are not always as quiet as some people would like for them to be. This is really hard on me because I am always worried that my children are bothering people and I don't really sleep well at night because I don't want my kids to make noise at nighttime while others are sleeping, and so I wake up at every squeak and creak. I am also the first one awake (or when Otto comes he is) so that I can make sure that the kiddies are as quiet as possible. I understand that they wake up before anyone else does and I remember what it was like to not have kids, so I try and make them as quiet as possible. I have also worked really hard at making sure that my kids aren't bothered by all the noise in the cabin at nighttime when the family is playing games. The kids are usually all in their bedroom which shares a wall with the main room and when we play games it can get really loud. I understand that this is a part of being out at the cabin and so I have never asked the other people at the cabin to be quiet because my kids were sleeping, I have simply taught my kiddies to sleep through it.
I have to be honest. Last year was so exciting for me because my kids tried and accomplished so many new things, but it was also the worst year ever. There was a huge fight and now I am not even sure if I want to go out there any more. My mom reassures me that everything will be fine, but I am so worried that I have actually been quite sick all week because of it. I just don't know. But luckily I will have Otto out there with me this time so he can help me with the kids so that they don't seem too bothersome for the other people.
Here's hoping!