Silver Lake

So it's June and I'm still pregnant. I'm at peace with this fact solely because I know that I will hold my daughter in my arms on Friday and I will NOT be pregnant anymore. I know this last month of pregnancy has been infinitely beneficial to my baby, and I'm so thankful that she's stuck around for it, but I am very, very done with the 40 lb. medicine ball sticking out from my abdomen.

I mentioned earlier that we have booked our first family vacation for this summer. I spent two weeks of chickening out over the "purchase" button on southwest.com, but we now have three (horribly expensive) tickets to Minneapolis in August. I'm taking my (two!) children to one of my favorite places on Earth- Silver Lake in Siren, Wisconsin. We have to leave Austin at the crack of dawn, endure a 2-hour layover in Denver, take a second flight to Minneapolis, pick up a rental car, and then drive 2 hours to Siren (and then do it all again backwards on the way home), but it will be worth it.

My grandpa was the 8th of 8 children and grew up on a farm in the teeny town of Siren (now with a booming population of 988). Next to the farm was a lake, Silver Lake, and after his dad died and his mom sold the farm, the family kept their little lot on the lake. As the years passed, my grandpa, now an officer in the Air Force, bought out each of his siblings, promising to take care of the property and its taxes while still keeping it open for their use whenever they wanted. Most of those siblings still live in and around Siren.

For as far back as I can remember, every other summer my family and I would pile into our Ford van and drive for 3 days to visit Silver Lake. My dad would pull over when we were a couple of miles away so we could put on our swim suits in order to race out of the van and jump in the water as soon as we arrived. The land wasn't developed, so my grandparents spent the summer living out of their camping trailer and we pulled our little camper right up alongside theirs. We loved it.

We woke up to this view each morning,

and went to sleep each night with the cozy knowledge that all five of us were under the same tiny roof. We spent our days swimming, fishing, and "going to town"- an adventure that usually involved a stop at the laundromat to wash our clothes (which my sister and I loved, we actually protested the addition of a washer and dryer when my grandparents built a cabin on the property a few years ago), a trip to the Main Street Cafe for lunch, and perhaps a stop at the Fudge Shop. Siren is a magical place in my memory, and even though it now boasts not one, but TWO hotels, additional restaurants, and a coffee shop with wireless internet, it remains a place that takes me back to a simpler time.

My grandparents still drive up to Silver Lake from their retirement community in San Antonio. About five years ago they built a beautiful 2-bedroom cabin (decorated almost entirely in Swedish yellow and blue, of course) on the property and they spend a few months there each summer. They're getting older, as grandparents are unfortunately prone to do, and their stints up in Siren are getting shorter. For that reason, and because of some deep emotional urge I can't rationally explain, it became incredibly important for me to travel to Silver Lake this summer. While my family has been blessed by my grandparents' decision to create a trust out of the lake property so that we will be able to enjoy it for years to come, I wanted to have at least one more trip with the cabin as their place. Plus, my maternity leave made this the perfect time for a trip.

My last trip to Silver lake was when we randomly decided to drive over from Chicago with a 7-week-old Landon. My grandparents got to meet their first great-grandchild, JP got to swim across the lake for exercise (not to diminish his swimming prowess, which is considerable, but it's a little lake; I did the same swim when I was in middle school),

and I got to enjoy some family time with two of my favorite people.

I am so excited for our trip this summer. We've saved up our money in a separate "vacation fund" savings account, and while the part of me who keeps a constant, unhappy eye on our student debt knows we should probably funnel it that way, the rest of me knows it will be money well spent. Our first family vacation. Landon will be old enough to enjoy the sandy bottomed beach, the little minnows that swim around the dock, and the "Queen Mary" pontoon boat (named for my grandmother). My grandparents will be able to spend time with their second great-grandchild. JP will be able to swim and comb antique stores for old stuff we don't need. And I will be able to watch Landon enjoy a place that I love so very much. I can't wait.