home sweet home...

Well almost. Kevin's in a funk. Either not enough quality time or the recent arrival of the rest of his family has rudely burst his sterile, silent environment. Seriously darling, they devote entire hospital wings to care for ones like you. Clorox wafts through the air and the padded walls allow only the sound of one's medicated breathing :) In fairness, he was stuck caring for my beloved cat, maintaining the pool, flowers and lawn as well as keeping money in the checking account while I was off playing so I'll cut him some slack. Thank you Kevin...

I haven't been gone for two weeks in a long time. Usually we're gone for maybe 10 days and usually we're all together. Since Kevin stayed behind it was the first time we had been apart for this long in, I don't know, 21 years or so. Note to self: any longer and he might not let you back in the house...

Did the Mall of America again- a day was sufficient this time around and ended up calling Kevin two or three times while I was there. Normally he's my bag runner. This time thankfully, there weren't as many bags, but I was on my own. It's always fun observing the variety of humans that pace back and forth and the fashions that adorn them. Good food, good rides, good shopping. Snoopy theme song played at 10 pm and we headed to our cars. 3 hours later, we're pulling into our family cabin and after assigning sleeping spots to 8 different people, with two beds, one futon and a poor excuse for a sleeper sofa, we were all in bed by 2:00 in the morning. Given the driving I had done Thursday & Friday and lack of sleep, even that futon sounded good, however John graciously drew that card. Shawna and Emma suffered on the sofa and David, Veronica and I got the beds. The two boys ended up in sleeping bags on the floor.

It's a long drive and the cabin really isn't anything at all fancy, but I'm telling you. The smell of that air the first morning on the lake is just something. Standing there with morning hair :) pj's, and a cup of hot coffee, taking it all in for the first time brings all these memories of years past to the surface in a moment. So many things have changed over the years, but so much is perfectly matched to my heart's snapshots. I suppose it's like that for lots of folks who spent summers away somewhere. Just thankful we had this opportunity.

With three kids ages 13 and under, two of them boys ages 9 & 6, once the eyes open for the day, the feet and chatter immediately follow. Picture towering fir trees, northern lake mere feet from the bright red wooden cabin, the sound of crows and loons alternating in the air and just when you'd swear you were standing in the middle of a postcard, out the screen door flies Batman and Robin yielding plastic swords and light sabers.

And the week begins.

The week that followed included two lovely lake days, complete with sun and warm water. An early morning storm on Tuesday cooled things off a bit and we finished the week with horseback riding, a deer park, small water slide and poorly maintained miniature golf. [All part of the ticket price or we would have gone somewhere else and will next time...] Made our anticipated trip into Nisswa and Pequot Lakes for some regional shopping and more food. The rest of our time was spent playing wiffle ball and bocce. None of us has a jet ski and they are just too expensive to rent and haul to the lake so we watch the locals race back and forth and try not to feel like losers. Which we aren't. But it would be nice...

David, John and Shawna packed up and hit the road home on Friday. Man, that was tough for me. I really wanted Shawna to stay but with school she really needed to get home. [Originally we each had separate weeks, but Veronica and I opted to combine and spend the extra week together since neither of us had to be back...] I imagine I moped around a bit when they left, but it was fine after that. Not like those three kids didn't keep things moving.

We enjoyed another perfect lake day the following Monday but the rest of the week was cool and cloudy. Kinda stinks for tans and swimming but I always look forward to at least a couple chilly nights and days to snuggle up in a sweatshirt and make a pot of chili. We were not disappointed. I got up one morning and threw extra blankets on everyone and could not believe how cold it was. It was 97 that day in Qtown. Crazy.

There's only one thing better than a rainy, cool day spent shopping in Nisswa, Minnesota. A sunny, cool day spent shopping in Nisswa, Minnesota during CRAZY DAYS!!! Yes. And it was everything you would imagine it was :) Simply beautiful. And I didn't even get to all of the stores sadly. I did make it home with 3 Minnesota sweatshirts that I haven't purchased in many moons, but I did this year. Just not positive I'll be back I guess. We promised the kids in exchange for their patience we'd spend the next few days lakeside and we did. Lots of movies, bocce and together time. They seriously kept their sno-cone machine going non-stop, the neighbors are still probably wondering what that sound was coming from our kitchen and we actually made a dent in the pile of groceries we crammed into the refrigerator. And if you ask the kids, I'm sure their favorite outing was the Lumberjack show we went to the night before we left. You may have seen something like this on ESPN. It was corny but fun and the boys especially had everything memorized, eager to reenact in their backyard for months to come.

I suggested mid-week that we write down all the fish tales from the wall on the porch and compile a booklet of sorts for the family. Easier said than done. 5 hours and many pages later we have quite a list. It's tradition to write the size of any substantial catches on the walls of the porch. Mostly northern pike, mostly in the 25-30" category. The competitive spirit is alive and well on Ada Lake. There are records of sunburns and tans, first boat rides and humorous quips and lots of memories. Not as many of our days at the lake as I thought but when they added the indoor bathroom [praise Jesus] I think many of the early years were covered or painted over. Still we have enough to make a nice little book for everyone to keep and add to in the years to come. I just don't know how many years there will be to come.

My paternal grandmother bought it like 50 years ago or so, for the whole family to share for the summer, and it was little more than a fishing shack. They added an additional bedroom and enclosed porch over the years. There was an outhouse that seemed like it was miles from the cabin and only an old pump inside for water. For years we had to heat water and bathe in the sink or take our soap to the lake with us. It was always cool to see how many bullet holes were in the outhouse every year and I tried not to think too much about what varmints might be snooping around. There was actually a "white hen" inside for those of us too "chicken" to pee outside after dark, but it was one long walk to carry it out there the next morning- and the older I got, a bit embarrassing if a car happened to drive by while en route. I can still remember standing Shawna in the sink when she was a little thing and playing all the normal jokes on her when she'd head to the bathroom. When grandma died it was divided among my aunts and uncles. They decided to sell their shares to my aunt who had never married and had really taken care of it over the years to begin with. She has graciously continued to maintain it and schedules its use every summer. She has updated it with a bathroom, complete with shower and replaced the pump with running water. There's air conditioning and all the comforts of home, if you're not sleeping on that sofa, but it's still a cabin and still more than a bit rustic.

I didn't go up last summer and really missed it. I have some really great memories of this place. I've dedicated two rooms upstairs in our house to cabin decor and have a large watercolor version of a photo Kevin took years ago of the cabin hanging on the wall. I have a stuffed loon I squeeze on rainy days and a loon CD I play when I get a hankering for the north. I've been going there since I was a baby and have many wonderful memories over the years. Shawna has collected a few of her own and this was John's third trip. Can. Not. Believe. That.

I have memories of a phone call from a phone booth making plans to abort our trip and head home to see an uncle whose cancer was calling the shots. I have memories of taking Kevin there when we were dating. Poor thing. He should have seen the writing on the wall years ago. I have memories of lots and lots of annoying photo ops my mom made us pose for. Of my early trips to Itasca and Canada. The mighty Mississippi before it gets mighty and muddy. Of seeing Indians walking along the roadside. Of flipping head over butt when dad stopped abruptly while I was peeing in a potty chair in the back of the station wagon we borrowed from my grandma. [Hey I was little.] Memories of moccasins and Indian dolls, loons and bears. Fish and mosquitoes, and pine cones. Frustrations when the weather wasn't exactly conducive to tanning and waiting for mom to finish shopping. Walks down sandy roads following dad in pursuit of eagles' nests or deer. And in all these years waiting for a bear sighting and coming home with only the tales of the one my uncles shot years ago. Memories of the kid down the road who was always vandalizing the cabins on the lake every year and wondering if he had the good sense to only shoot through the windows in the off season. There are even memories of an ambulance ride to Brainerd when dad had a spell with a racing heart years ago. And memories of the family next door, wondering what Eddie had been up to all summer.

I have memories of a phone call telling me mom's check-up was fine and trying to decide if her voice was hiding anything. I have memories of staying a couple extra days to overlap with Veronica when Emma was only a month old. I have memories of taking Jennie when Shawna was in the 4th grade I think. And memories of one last trip with mom when the phone call said they were "sending her home".

Dad has only been back once alone since she died. He says it's the distance and the dog. Maybe. I think it's because of the memories and being there alone is just too much. He did go with us a couple winters ago when we actually made the trip to see it under a blanket of snow. It was like 9 below that day but we managed to pick the one winter they had a record low amount of snowfall. We wrote on the wall, walked on the lake and marked it off our list of things we always wanted to do.

It isn't the same as it used to be. Couldn't expect it to be. There are cabins where there was once only forest and every ounce of lakefront has someone's dock sitting there. Even the faces next door are new, buying it from Lois when Eddie died two years ago. I wondered this year if their kids ever get back that way with their families or if soccer schedules and city life keep them too busy to fit it in. I wonder how long my aunt will keep the cabin, or if she dies what will become of it. I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to steal a week or two on the lake with my own grandchildren and smile at the possibility. I know I'd like to show them the wall, where dad wrote how my mom managed to mow over his 357 magnum somehow or about my first northern, or where I caught their mother's eye with my hook. I'd like to bore them with all you've been reading and more because there is so much more.

Not the least of which ended only a couple days ago and the lake air still lingers in my dirty laundry which isn't doing itself sadly. I'm going to unpack my stuffed loon to replace the one I wore out and place my new sweatshirts on the shelf for the first rainy day, cool enough to put them on. And we bought moccasins. John even has a pair that he will make cool if it kills him. Shawna's are bright lime green, no big surprise and we'll share a pair of brown ones when the green just isn't right. I miss it, I do. But it's really nice to be home, and Kevin will just have to deal.