Birthday/Fourth of July/vacation recap

Charlie and I took a short vacation and went up to the lake with the Schneeman side of his family, and let me tell you -- it was great.  Between all of the craziness that we've been dealing with cancer-wise and Charlie being in trial at the end of June, we were both seriously in need of a getaway.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous about the whole thing, in particular, my birthday.  This was one birthday I was not looking forward to.  We woke up at 3am to hit the road to Minnesota and met my Mom and Grammy in Minneapolis for breakfast.  Much to my surprise, my sister Caitlin flew in from Albuquerque, and my cousin Cora also joined us.  It was so, so nice to spend time with family and for the surprise visit from Caitlin, and it really set the tone for a good birthday.  We then drove the rest of the way up to the lake and had a great dinner with Charlie's whole family and the Doughertys.  It all made me realize that I was silly to be nervous about any of it. 

We spent the rest of the time swimming, pontooning, getting sunburned (mostly just me and Charlie), sitting by the fire, reading, eating, napping, etc.  Charlie's whole family, and his parents in particular, are so welcoming and hospitable.  I am very, very lucky to have married into this family.

It was really hard to leave.  We had a great time and it was tough to leave knowing everyone else got to stay behind and have more fun, but the hardest part was knowing that we were coming back to real life.  Charlie and I both independently had demarcated the summer into pre-lake and post-lake.  Post-lake, unfortunately, is when everything starts getting real really fast.  Thank goodness we both came back feeling refreshed and rejuvinated and ready to take this whole thing head on.

One unfortunate result of the weekend (besides my sunburn and massive mosquito bites) was that our camera bit the dust halfway through, so I missed a lot of camera-worthy moments, and the few pictures that I do have are being held hostage on the memory card until I can figure out how to get them off.  I'll post when they have been freed.  In the meantime, here is one photo stolen from Mary Margaret's facebook and one blackberry photo.