9 Days

In 8 days, I will officially be on vacation, and in 9 days we will be settling into the cabin for 9 days of relaxation, friends, food, nature discovery with L, camp fires, wheeler rides through state forest land, bean bag tourneys, food, lazy afternoons in the chair reading, coffee on the dock at sunrise (watching the otters play), photography, more food, pontooning, fishing....ahhhhhh sweet, sweet vacation. Did I mention food?

(That may be the only drawback; the 5 lbs I am guaranteed to gain while there...but what they hell, it's worth it!)

Our annual trip to the cabin (I say 'the' cabin like it's ours...it's not, we rent one at a resort, but it really has become 'ours' the last week of August through Labor Day every year!) is something I look forward to as soon as we arrive back home every year :) It is so wonderful to escape to the great north woods, away from the hustle and bustle of every day life for over a week. We never took week long vacations when I was growing up, we just took long weekends at the lake (Friday through Sunday) and it just isn't the same as getting away for 9 days...When you take a long weekend, about the time you are fully relaxed and getting into the 'vacation life' then you have to pack up and go home. When you go for 9 days, you really get to relax. By the time it is time to go home, you actually WANT to go home. It is amazing. And I can't wait!

(Not to mention that when I was young we were tenting it, mom and dad had the camper on the back of the truck but K and I stayed in tents. The toilet was an outhouse, no running water, etc etc. Now I go to a cabin, which is SO COOL, LOL. It's the awesome camping feeling and experience with the luxuries of home like a bed and running water! I do still enjoy a good tenting weekend though :0) )

L is going to have SOOO MUCH FUN this year! I can't wait to catch frogs with him and feed the striped gophers (these little buggers are so tame they will crawl right up in your lap for peanuts and let you pet them), feed the ducks corn, watch the otters swim, take nature walks with him, feed him his first 'Smore', and all the things I loved doing while camping as a kid. He is going to be able to run around with the other kids this year, which I know he is going to LOVE. He is going to be on cloud 9 when he gets to be outside 90% of the time for those 9 days...My little nature boy cannot get enough of being outside. He isn't going to know what to do with himself!

I love these pre-vacation weeks of anticipation; they make me feel like a kid again. Just like I did before we would head up to the lake for the weekend. That feeling is one of my few REALLY GOOD memories from my childhood.