Favorite Things Friday

Last weekend really brought back to life a lot of my most favorite childhood memories.

My family loved boating. We spent every possible Saturday on the lake in Okoboji, IA, throughout the whole summer. We'd get up early, and Mom and I would make lunches while Dad and Jason loaded up the boat. We tried to keep Julie and Jess busy with random tasks, too. ;) We would make the one-hour-long trip to the lake, and be out there until dark. By the time we got home, we were so tired and hungry, and Mom would pop some Tombstone frozen pizzas in the oven for supper.

Once a year, we would spend a week vacationing at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Those were the best times!!! The lake was huge...lots of space for boating, plenty of calm coves for swimming and learning to ski, and great waves for riding the tube or the torpedo. We spent every possible minute on the water, only coming back to our resort after dark. My grandparents would vacation down there too, and stay at a campground. We would boat over to the campground and have cookouts with them and usually get to see our cousins who lived down there (Miss you, Melissa and Meghan!!!). Usually, each of us kids got to spend one night out of the week with Grandpa & Grandma all by ourselves!! That was always a highlight! ;) Grandpa would usually take me into town and get an ice cream cone at McDonalds!! I thought that was great! :) And then I would play games with Grandma...she had such cool games, like Chinese Checkers! Then, it would be time for bed. Although, I do remember getting scared when I was little because of how loudly Grandpa snored!!! Hahaha!

It was very sad when we sold our boat after Dad died. It just seemed like we were closing a book on something that I was no where near ready to give up. In so many ways, our lives changed drastically when Dad died; but our family really did not change. We still were close and loving and had so many good times together! But all of this is why it was so special to us to be able to give Mom a birthday present of the whole family out on the lake once again!

I dug up some old boating pictures of our family...looking at these gives me what Jess would probably call a 'sweet ache'! ;)

Us kids swimming with Dad
(Me, Julie, Jess, and Jason)

This must have been one of the evenings that we were leaving Grandma & Grandpa's campsite. We girls always tried to sit as close to the front of the boat as possible so we could really feel the waves! (Notice my missing tooth and my bucktooth sticking out!! Haha! I'm so thankful Mom & Dad got me some braces!)

Dad throwing Jason in the water. We loved when he would do this to us! Me next, me next!!!! ;)

Jason watching Dad one-ski

Mom, Julie, me, Grandma, Jason, and Dad