For those of you who don't know my dad built our cabin himself (except for the well & foundation) in 1989. We stayed at my grandparent's cabin next door until it was done enough to live in (plywood on the walls). Each weekend we would go up and do a little more work on the cabin. My dad traveled Monday-Friday every week so he made sure we made it up to the cabin every weekend. By the time I was around 12 and my brother was around 10, we had everything done except for small touches like the trim around windows and doors. At that point, my dad realized it was more important to play and enjoy the cabin than it was to finish these minute tasks, so for years they went unfinished. When my dad passed away in '05 we stayed away from the cabin for about a year and a half, it was just too hard to go up there and face all the memories. But when we finally started going up again in the spring/summer of '07 we decided it was time to get everything completed. So now, just like when I was little, we get up there on weekends and finish the work. We are so close now and it's so nice to complete what my dad was not able to.
...but because the weather was so nice we didn't get as much done as we had originally planned. Oh well, it was much more fun to spend time outside! Our friends Lindsey & Jay have a cabin (well it's actually Jay's parents cabin) just four doors down from ours...very small world! Lindsay was my roommate in college who met her now fiancee, Jay, while we were still at UW-Eau Claire. When he came up for my graduation party we got to talking about our cabins and spending time up north. The conversation went something like this...
Jay: Where is your cabin at?
Jen: Oh about 2 hours north of the Twin Cities, a half hour north of Mille Lacs Lake
(we're down to about 100+ different lakes)
Jay: No way! Mine too! It's just south of Aitkin, MN
(now we're down to about 20+ different lakes)
Jen: Huh, so is mine. It's on a small lake called Hanging Kettle just off Hwy 169
Jay: (jaw drops) Umm Hanging Kettle? So is mine. Our cabin is one of the buildings that used to be in the old resort
Jen: (jaw drops even further) Are you kidding me?!? That's just steps away from our cabin! I don't suppose you remember an older guy that used to putz around on his three wheeler talking to all the neighbors? That was my grandpa...
Jay: VIRGIL was your grandpa?!?! That guy used to show up here all the time!
So you think that is small world? It gets even weirder...Jay's mom was Lindsey's third grade teacher in Rochester, MN
Think that's a small world? Now it gets even smaller and weirder...When Casey and I first met working in the same small office at Enterprise in the beginning of '06 we started small talking about where we were from etc. That conversation went something like this...
Jen: So where did you grow up?
Casey: Rochester, Minnesota
Jen: What year did you graduate high school? And which one did you graduate from?
Casey: '98 and Mayo...why?
Jen: I don't suppose you would know a Jay (I'm leaving out last names) or Lindsey?
Casey: Lindsey I don't know but Jay and I grew up together and were pretty good friends, how do you know him?
So now the four of us are great friends that spend time together when we're home in the Twin Cities (we live about 10 mins apart) and when we are up at the cabin :)
But back to the past weekend. The weather was gorgeous, we got Gavin out on a boat for the first time and spent many hours outside playing Ladder Ball (and possibly throwing back a few beers) We didn't bring Gavin out on the speed boat but we did bring him out on Jay's pontoon. We had him in his life jacket which is still a bit big on him and he was NOT a fan! But once we took his life jacket off (shhh please don't tell the DNR!) he was happy and quickly fell asleep on daddy's shoulder.
At some point on this boat trip, Jay started talking about being the first group on the lake to go water skiing. Then I mentioned that we had wetsuits... and CRAP. I just agreed to go waterskiing in the frigid cold water. Please ignore the glowing white legs, they hadn't seen the sun since last summer.
Right before we headed out one other family started pulling young kids on a tube but we were still the first out waterskiing!
When we were on shore we played quite a few games of ladder ball while Gavin hung out with his toys (yes, Mr. Froggy came on the trip) in his stroller. I was one of those kids that collected beanie babies when they were all the rage. My mom had kept them all (I probably have around 50) and now Gavin gets to enjoy them.
For some reason, Gavin decided that he would spit up a ton so he pretty much lived in a bib. We got really tired of having to change his clothes!
In the afternoon it was just warm enough for Gavin to hang out in one of his summer outfits...how cute is this little guy!
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