sylvia: August 2013

We made it safely back from our family vacation of 2013 in Eagle River, Wisconsin (or "Wisconskin" as Seth would say). We had a wonderful, wonderful time! This is a vacation that my parents, brothers and I would make every summer growing up as kids - back to the same lake where my mom grew up in northern Wisconsin - so it was really awesome to be able to share that part of my life with my husband and kids. Here's a little recap:

Travel
The kids did a great job on the plane, there and back. I was so impressed. We packed Seth a little backpack full of new toys he's never seen before and added new apps onto the iPad for him ... he was well occupied! Olivia is a happy girl in general, but she also slept on each flight, and we passed her along between Jack, myself and my parents and brothers. The 4-hour car ride once we landed in Madison, though, was another story. I could totally understand the kids were ready to get up and run around for awhile, but we had to get to the lodge. The last hour or so of the drive consisted of me, Joel and Carlee (Joel's wonderful and amazing girlfriend) singing "Father Abraham" - with all the hand motions - and every other Sunday School song we could think of just to keep the kids' screams at bay. Haha. I'm sure we looked ridiculous.

Family
Even though we live only two hours away from my parents, we rarely get to see each other, so this week was nice just to be with them. It was so wonderful to get to spend time with almost all of my aunts, uncles and cousins from that side of the family too. We used to all get together like this every single summer growing up, but once we moved to California when I was 14, we went back once. So we really haven't had much time with our extended family like this since around 2000. Now all of us cousins are older, some of us married and with kids. It's a whole new dimension and it's wonderful. My cousin, Brian, has a 3-year-old daughter, Mina, who played so well with Seth while they were there. It was adorable seeing them together. And it reminded me of my second-cousin, Duste, who was my same age and who I rarely got to see, but when we did, we were best friends. It was also a blessing to introduce Olivia to everyone. My grandpa from this side of the family went by his nickname, "Red", because of his red hair. His hair color was passed on to me and a few of my cousins, and now onto Olivia. Such a joy to be able to pass the rare trait into another generation! I was reminded of what a great family we have. We are so silly, sarcastic and fun, yet can be very serious, Godly and emotional. There were a few moments during our time there that I was struck with just an overwhelming feeling of love for my family and a feeling of being so blessed to be called a Keller(-Hull-Osorno).

The Lodge
The lodge we stayed at is actually the very house my mom grew up in! Even though her parents sold it over 40 years ago, we're still able to rent it out for this one week each summer. It's a huge house with lots of bedrooms, a large kitchen and a huge dining and living space. Perfect for everyone who was there. Seth and Olivia absolutely loved all the open space to roam and explore. Outside, there's a grass area leading down to the lake and dock. Both kids loved going down there as well. Seth is still talking about the lodge with fond memories.

Activities
My uncles all have boats and jet skis so we spent parts of each day out in the water boating, water skiing, jet skiing, and fishing. Joel, Max, Carlee, Jack and my dad went out with my Uncle Mark two mornings and brought back some great fishing memories and a few fish large enough to fry up and eat. It seriously brought me so much joy for Jack to be able to do this. He's never had the chance to fish before, let along catch something, learn how to skin it, fry it up and eat it. It was also his first time tubing and water skiing. It seems weird, but it really blessed me to be able to give him these opportunities and to do things that I grew up doing. I thought Seth would be addicted to riding in the boats, but quite the opposite. I had to force him to go. Ha. That's his personality though. Once he was on the boat for awhile he warmed up quite a bit. He even drove the boat with Uncle Jed a few times - and he fell asleep at the wheel in Jed's arms. It was precious. Olivia on the other hand LOVED the boat. She loved to stand as tall as she could get and have the wind whip her in her face. Not one ounce of fear in that girl! We were also constantly playing games - card games, pool, jarts, "dingleberry toss", concentration, trivial persuit, telephone pictionary - you name it. So much fun! There was one night that we went into downtown Eagle River for dinner, to walk around the shops and enjoy the live music and street dance. Such a cute town! And, of course, I got the kids their own Minnetonka moccasins to remember our time there (there's a large Native American presence in the northern midwest). One unfortunate activity we had to make was to the E.R. for Olivia. She had not been sleeping well the first few days there, but I just thought it was because we were in a new place with new sounds. But after three whole nights of Jack and I getting maybe 4 hours of sleep ... we took her in and sure enough her ears were pretty inflamed. She was sleeping a little better the rest of the week, but not fantastic at all. Honestly, Jack and I were exhausted ... and cranky ... but we had enough help that we were still able to enjoy our time.

It really was a great vacation. One that we'd love to do again one day.