let's go boating

I spent the weekend at my parent's house in the suburbs. On Saturday I had a dentist appointment and later that night we had a party for my aunt and uncle's 25th anniversary. I spent a lot of time with two of my cousins - who are really more like siblings/best friends. We were constantly together growing up and anytime we get together is always insanely fun. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard on more than one occasion.

On Sunday we all (my parents and myself along with my aunt and uncle and two cousins) went to my parent's boat. My sister and I have spent every summer of our lives taking the hour long drive up to the lake. From infants when we had no choice, to children when we loved swimming in the water, to teens when we would have rather been out with friends. Now in my mid-twenties I'm back to going voluntarily. These days my sister isn't a big fan of the motion-sickness-inducing waves, and sadly opts out of the fun.

We boat in northern Illinois right near the border of Wisconsin. The Chain O'Lakes. Oh how to describe the chain... There is a touch of this:

and a much larger touch of this:

Either way it's the polar opposite of living in downtown Chicago but the change of scenery was nice. BTW I think with a bunch of fixing up that little house could be really cute..!

When I was younger I never cared about this history of the chain... history in any form was a bore. But it's suddenly a lot less boring when you find out that Al Capone had a summer house right on the water.
(Al Capone photo credit here, I took the photo of his house)

And for some reason we always swim right near his house. When I was in my teens I teased one of my cousins to be careful of all the dead bodies while swimming. She freaked out and asked my mother if there were actually bodies in the water to which she said "oh no"...she paused for dramatic effect..."they're skeletons by now."

Good one mom.