First time up at the Lake...And a Lasting memory

Hananh and I finished up work and preschool and took Hailee out of school the week after Memorial Day! We had a great time as a family up there and the weather was amazing. This place still remains our favorite place on earth, no matter how many times we head up there!

 Fishing time with Daddy!

 Uncle Josh hanging with Hannah

 A little wake boarding for Daddy and Uncle Josh!

And although this was a super fun week, it was also a really hard week. We found out the first weekend we were up there that my grandfather had taken a really bad turn and his days were numbered. I had the honor of being with my grandfather 2 weekend prior over Mother's Day where he knew, for that day only, who I was, who Hannah and Brian were, and told me so clearly he loved me! So I had a peace knowing that if he passed, we had had a special time with him a few short weeks before. However, being at the lake house, that he built with his own 2 hands 33 years ago, and kept and maintained for his family, esp. us 3 grandchildren, to enjoy all these years, was hard. I felt like everything I looked at and saw and touched, was because of his love and selflessness for his family. His hard work and dedication to his family is what allowed me as a child, teenager, young adult, and now parent to make all these amazing memories with my family and share more joy and peace at this place than anything else ever had! 

And then, at the end of that week, Brian came back up there a day early to bring me my phone (which had taken a swim in the lake and with a hard effort from myself and my cousin, it was no more) and that evening when we were hanging out and talking, we got the phone call that my sweet grandaddy had passed and gone to be with the Lord. To say I had a small breakdown is an understatement, but to know I was lying in his bed, in his room, in his house, where he would never visit again, was really really sad. But then to tell myself that the man who spent so many years here at this lake, on the boat over these waters, was no longer that same man. My grandad suffered from dementia and was no longer the strong, alert, hard working man he had taught me to be. So to know he had passed from this life, where he lived an amazing life with an intense and purposeful attitude, to a life that was eternal and healthy and healed for him to soar as the strong man he was made to be, was comforting. And we will continue to live out his legacy as he taught us with hard work, providing for your family, enjoying the simple things in life, and investing wisely to be able to then provide a lifestyle for our family. So thank you Grandad, for providing this lake house for us to use freely and create joyful memories with our own children now. We will forever be grateful for your unconditional love for your family and for providing love and support to us when we needed it the most. May you rest in peace and know that every time Im out on these waters, I will be reminded of what a special grandfather I was blessed to have.