For one last summer trip I took the kids to Minnesota to visit my family over Labor Day weekend. We really squeezed it in and made the most of it. Alex wasn’t able to join us, as he took way too much time off for our crazy summer of travel and needed to catch up on life.
I was really glad we had taken a recent flight so that everything would be fresh in our memory on how to have a smooth travel day. Ben and Hannah are travel pros! Everything went about as well as it possibly could have. Still, it was a very long day. The 2.5 hour drive to the airport really adds a lot.
For our first few days in Minnesota we stayed with my mom in the town I grew up in.
Hannah had never been to Minnesota before {aside from in utero!}, and Ben wasn’t even 1.5 yet when he was there last. We had a lot of time to make up for!
We had such a special time catching up with my best friend, Sarah, and one of her daughters, who was due within a day of Ben! It had been since pre-pandemic that I had seen her, so the reunion was long overdue.
I took Ben and Hannah to the beach just down the street from my mom’s house. I spent my summers in high school lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons there. We bumped into the kiddos of one of my other girlfriends from high school – they had just been out to see us a few weeks before, so the kids had a blast reconnecting.
The weather during our whole trip to Minnesota honestly couldn’t have been better. Our whole summer filled with travel was also filled with terrible weather, but not on our Minnesota trip! It was just perfect.
I got to catch up with another girlfriend from high school and my aunt, who hadn’t met Hannah yet, and just return to my old stomping grounds, which brought back so many memories.
Halfway through our trip my dad picked us up and we drove to central Minnesota to his cabin. I was hit with overwhelming nostalgia upon our arrival.
The cabin is now in its third generation of owners {my dad and one of his sisters} and was built by my great-grandfather. I grew up spending much of my summers there, running around with my cousins, tubing behind the boat, shucking husks of corn and sunbathing in my favorite chair with my watermelon towel.
The cabin has weathered several very harsh years as level of the water in the lake has dramatically increased, putting it and other structures on the lake, in peril. My dad and brother came to the rescue and ultimately saved the cabin and it’s truly never looked better than it does now.
Ben and Hannah made all the memories up at “Grandpa Fred’s Cabin” and had such a special time.
They were obsessed with jumping off the dock {a huge thanks to my dad for bearing with their incessant requests to go swimming!}.
My brother was able to spend the whole time up at the cabin with us, too, which is always a treat. Ben and Hannah adore their uncle and really enjoyed spending so much time with him.
I knew it was going to be exhausting for me to take the kids by myself to Minnesota, and it was, but it was also really special and I’m really happy we were able to make it happen. I love that they have the trip so fresh in their memories, and I hope we’re able to make another summer trip back soon.
