I don’t know about you, but I have always dreamed about having a place that me and my family return to year after year to make memories. I love the idea of having that spot where photos show the evolution of childhood - mastering a bike without training wheels, smiles with missing teeth and ice cream melting over sticky fingers. I didn’t have this one sort of place myself, but my husband does. A quiet Adirondack cottage on a lake in the middle of no where. And while it certainly is rustic, my children love it. Even more so, they feel ownership of it. As a person married into the lake life, I don’t have that sort of sense of place there. I typically see the work involved in getting there, being there and leaving there. The mom work. I am not disregarding this work because it truly is work. The washing, the packing (so.much.packing), the cooking, the rocking in an ancient rocker that no man has even nursed a baby in, the trying be present and have fun when truly, you may not be… But this year I am trying something different - instead of seeing the lake as something to get through, I’m going to try to see it as investing in my children’s legacy. I want them to remember the work, to appreciate that it does take work, but to also remember a mom that made it special for them. Who enjoyed the lake right along with them, as a participant, not a bystander.

So what that means is I am going to need to romanticize life like I have never romanticized before. I am leaning in! Here are a few ways I’m romanticizing the lake:

Pinterest to the rescue! I’m looking up outfits and aesthetics that speak to me and being on the lookout for those real life details.
Reframe my thoughts. Leave prior experiences in the past. (I.e babies who do not enjoy sleeping in a new spot!)
Be enthusiastic about the parts of the trip I enjoy (boat trips, ice cream in town, local syrup from little spot on the side of the road, the clambake!) and leave the rest. Focus on the good!
Make room for more good. My husband and I spoke at length about this. What does our little family want to do? A visit to local historical spots so we can geek out? Yes! A hike with pretty views? Yes!
Cousin camp. For the kids but also for me? I love doing arts and crafts with my kids and adding extra cousin magic with my niece and nephew helped me keep the kids entertained in a fun-for-me-too way. And this cousin camp was pretty low key. Each night I drew up an itinerary for the kids to find first thing in the morning. A couple simple activities go a long way! They knew what to expect and could get excited about it without saying whats next, whats next?! They could be in the moment too.

***Post Script - this post was drafted before we went to the lake, and I’m just getting to posting it because …life. Was there a boat fire? Yes. A baby that didn’t sleep? Of course! Smoke detectors that needed batteries in the middle of the night? Also yes. But there were good things too. Cousin camp was a HIT, and I think I may have started a new tradition. We had the best day exploring an old fort with a special scavenger hunt my husband made with amazing treasure at the end, and we are still enjoying the maple syrup each Saturday with our pancakes. So yes it was still a totally crazy trip, but this time, I’m letting the fun my children had outweigh all the other noise.