one of the highlights of my summers is going north to leech lake for my mom’s family’s reunion. we spend 3 nights up north, hanging out together, spending time on the lake. for a person like myself, who doesn’t normally have a lot of money to spend on travelling, this is my summer vacation – the only time of the summer i officially call vacation. i love it.
this year, two of my cousins are getting married within a month of each other (like my cousin matt and i did in 2005, and liz got married six months later; oh and charlie and karl graduated from high school in there, too). unfortunately, the reunion was called off this year due to some family members being committed to a lot of weddings.
with the warm weather, i always start to think about lake time, but every time i think about it this year, i get all sad and mopey because it’s not happening this year. sure, i’ll see my relatives at the weddings. i might see a lake at some point this summer (there sure aren’t a ton down here). but it just isn’t the same.
so, here’s a repost of something i wrote 7 years ago before the reunion, which makes me über sad.

So I’m looking forward to boat rides and swimming and eating Grandma’s donuts and hanging out by the fire and drinking beer with my cousins and the smell of sunscreen and getting sunburned and OFF and wearing sunglasses and swimming and seeing my siblings (minus Liz 🙁 ) and eating decent food and not wearing shoes and laughing and did I say swimming and the smell of lake and the sun and the breeze in the trees and riding in the boat and not working and hey, swimming and my toes in the sand and nummy drunken sandwiches and the anticipatory drive there and watching the trees turn from oaks and maples into birches and pines and swimming….