Today was a nice relaxing day but it was also the last day my Dad and stepMom would be here at the cabin. There was the sort of hustle and bustle that comes with the last day….do everything left on “the list” and make it count. There has been a lot of talk this year of selling the cabin and another neighbor up here is selling so it is sort of adding to the difficulty because we just don’t know if this will be the last time we see this place.

With the turtle removed from the permise the kids had more fun swimming today. At some point the little boys buried Dalton into sand up to his head - everyone has to have that experience once in their life right?

That’s his head under that life jacket.

There were a few fishing outings and kayak excursions but no real major catches. There were games of Monopoly and Racko. Grandpa gave Dalton his first “good lure” (as opposed to…I dunno). Noah and Grammy made this great rock woman who Noah says reminds him of me. I’m pretty, um, honored. These are the kinds of things that go on at The Cabin, though.

This place has the heartbeat of my children’s childhoods and the essence of their very beings embedded into it. Its hard to put into words but all the parts of my children’s personalities that I so love and that are so core to their beings are intensified up here and (almost) all the other parts just fade away. Something about peace and nature and lack of technology and family, I guess. I know they count down the days all year until we can go up and we really were not thinking we could pull it off this year and I’m so glad we made it happen.

But there’s more to it than just the magical spell this place casts. It’s also the memories. No one warned me that when you are not the child, but the parent, all that the memories do is give you a concrete measuring stick with which to measure your children’s growth. I walk into this place that we only visit one time a year and I can instantly see Teegan, 2 years old, in diapers. And Dalton learning to cast a fishing pole for the first time. Teegan grew up frogging and Dalton grew up searching for turtles every single summer on this lake. My kids learned how to kayak here. We honeymooned here. We celebrated pretty much every anniversary here ever since. We came up here soon after we got Addison’s referral and I knitted and knitted her a beautiful dress and carried her referral pictures everywhere and showed anyone who would look. Noah, Addison and Teegan don’t know a summer that doesn’t include The Cabin. We even have a 5 year old pet turtle who was born here and bears the name of the lake from which he was caught (before we knew better than to catch and keep wild turtles). I sat here and pondered war and peace and politics and talked until all hours with my Dad and Tony about all these topics and more. I can see huge huge chunks of my children’s life (and my own, truth be told) pass by in a heartbeat the minute I walk through the door. It shook me hard this year, all the memories and how much time has passed.

When it was time to say goodbye to Grammy and Grandpa, Noah pretty much lost it and Teegan wasn’t far behind. It was rough. Every year this happens, one kid gets so emotional. But this year was especially bad. I think we were all a little more sad than usual. And then there is always the guilt that soon follows when the kids frantically ask “Who will come fishing with me in the morning?” and “Who will take me out searching for magical and special items and take me for kayak rides?”. These are grandparent rituals and even if we try, we won’t really truly do it “right” and it won’t be the same.

But it isn’t quite time for us to leave the Cabin yet. The boys were invited to a bon fire tonight and had such a great time. Tomorrow we have our annual trek into town for a deli picnic and window shopping. And Friday brings a fun visit with one of my closest friends here in Michigan whom I haven’t seen since last year. So there is plenty of fun to be had but saying goodbye really sucks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Holidays & Vacations, Milestones, Parenting, Photos & Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.