08/20/2026
This summer has been really really hard.
Andy had to take one more class than he usually does this semester, plus he had two of the hardest classes he will have to take during his doctoral program all at once; the kids both went through some big toddler transitions at the same time which meant a lot of tears and several weeks of sh*tty sleep; and I had to figure out how to run a business in 8ish hours a week — which btw didn’t work out very well lmao (I’ve been barely hanging on over here 😵💫).
But Andy finished his summer semester last week and Elle starts her first day of preschool next week, so we used our only week where everyone was out of school to rent an Airbnb on a lake in Southern Illinois.
A lake house getaway is our ideal vacation as a family and now we’re on a mission to figure out how to buy our own lake house in the near future (can’t wait to throw it back to this post when we turn that dream into a reality).
Andy spent hours fishing, Elle jumped off the diving board and went down the slide at least 100x, Rhodes and I swam and napped together (I love a lake nap), and we’re all headed back to the city recharged and extra grateful.
It was the perfect way to close out the summer. Now we’re ready to take on the fall. 👊
