Day 4- favorite.childhood.memory

Here we are- Day 4 already!!  Also, today is one of my favorite holidays, so Happy Birthday America! Typically, I spend this day on a lake in Montana, but this year I will be in Portland, hanging with my friends listening to country music, enjoying a brew or two and some meat on the BBQ!  Not sure about fireworks tonight, but we will have a fantastic time regardless!

As for a favorite childhood memory...

Every summer during my childhood, my family loaded up our car or van and drove to Mound Minnesota and spent several weeks with my dad's family.  My grandma lived on Lake Minnetonka and various family members lived in the surrounding areas.  As kids, we would spend nearly the entire summer in our bathing suits; the smell of fish, dirt and sunscreen were our perfume.  All of our cousins lived in the area and would come over to grandma's house to have sleep-overs, backyard BBQs and hours spent in the lake.  Some years the lake would be very low and we could play in the sand, but most summers it was too high and my dad would have to make the dock higher. We mostly caught sunfish in the lake, but also caught an occasional carp or two ;)

Many of some of my best memories from my childhood are from the time spent in Minnesota.  We were so lucky that both of our parents worked in the school districts and had summers off allowing us many weeks every summer with our family!  Since my childhood, many of those family members have passed away.  I miss them today, but am thankful I have so many memories with them at grandma's house.