i recently went on vacation with my family a few days ago. drove up north from where we live to visit some extended family.

we had actually lived up there before we moved a few times and eventually settled down where we live now.

it was strange to be back in that area again because i hadn't been up there in a very long time.

i was REALLY young when had lived in that area but i still recognized some places and buildings.

it's a really pretty place with lots of forested area and plenty of huge lakes and channels. i can't imagine ever living in such a spaced out place long-term though, my dad had said it would take like 40+ minutes just to drive to a grocery store. yikes.

anywho, we left on 07/11/25 (last friday as of writing this.), and i had to drive so... much.... it was fine though! i don't mind driving and i honestly find it pretty fun. plus, it was mostly highway driving so i was kinda just driving straight for it all.

after driving for like, 3 and a half hours (with a couple breaks here and there), we arrived at the resort house my parents had rented out for the weekend. it was a surprisingly nice place honestly i'm kinda bummed i didn't take a single photo of the inside, i'd loved to have shown it off here.

we all unloaded the cars of all our stuff and settled down after the long drive. a little bit after, my mom's brother and his two daughters arrived because they were gonna spend the weekend with us.

okay so as a little side story, my mom had actually reserved these condos like, a year ago. the plan WAS that my family would share one BIG condo with that extended family piece but the people working at the resort place fucked something up and lost our reservation???

of course, my mom was PISSED. this whole thing was meant for her birthday (07/11), and some shmuck ruined a big part of it, so the guy gave us two separate condos in compensation. i don't really know the full story but from what i had heard this whole thing was his fault and instead of admitting that HE screwed up he blamed the online reservation system they used.

i didn't care too much, but i guess that's because i wasn't paying for anything so... bleh... still sucks though, i wouldn't even be kinda disappointed if the dude just admitted he fucked up but from the sounds of it he did not own up to anything.

okay side story over sorry lmao :3c

after my uncle and cousins arrived we all just hung out for a while, spending this time to catch up and chat about whatever.

while everyone was settling down, we had some of those like, pre made chicken alfredos and lasagnas we bought from costco on the way there.

after everyone was done eating, we headed out onto a pontoon my parents rented out. all the pictures attached to this post were all from day 1 on the water. that was a lot of fun, the temperature had gone down a lot and it was just perfect.

when the sun was getting pretty low, we went back to our condos, said goodnight to everyone, and unwinded after the long day.

day 2 is the start of all the actual stuff of the vacation.

i was abruptly woken up at like, 6 in the morning to my grandma's alarm going of REALLY LOUDLY (forgot to mention me and my gramma shared a small room during the vacation).

i couldn't get back to sleep so i just got out of bed and lounged around in the living room for a while.

a few hours go by and everyone's awake by now. we were all getting dressed and ready to head down to this breakfast joint that's been there for, fuckin', SO many years at this point.

i remember going there a few times when i was REALLY young. oh man, this whole vacation was just one big nostalgia trip.

the breakfast they have there is really really good. i got a loaded croissant, i have no clue what exactly was in it but it was like a breakfast sandwich maybe? now that i'm thinking about it, i don't think i was supposed to eat it like a sandwich...

after the breakfast, we went back to the condos and spent a few hours digesting before we went back out on the pontoon again.

there isn't much to say about the waters, it feels really nice to be out there though. it was also nice to just, take in the scenery and relax.

we spent a few hours out there, having fun, spending time with family. this was actually the first time i had spent time with extended family after coming out as trans, it was nice, no one seemed to resent that fact. i felt real.

when we were out there, it began to rain so we had to quickly get back to land and then we spent the rest of the day just hanging out inside to avoid the crazy winds.

day 3 was spent mostly out on the water.

i woke up pretty early again, fortunately not to a loud alarm my gramma forgot to turn off.

the morning started off pretty slow, my cousin had made a super awesome like,, egg,, casserole... thing,.,. for breakfast??? i have zero idea what it actually was but it was really yummy,., and she had also made some caramel rolls or something and those were super good too.,,.

after we all ate the awesome breakfast, we headed out on the water once again. this time was special though, because my parents had rented out a jetski!!! then, to make it even better, my uncle had brought down TWO more jetskis he borrowed from a friend.

so the setup was, there's a few of us on the pontoon, just sailing around, and then theres three (or more) people on the jetskis, zipping on by super fast.

i didn't ride one of the jetskis, a choice i'm regretting at least a little bit now, but it's too late. maybe i'll get another opportunity some day.

after a while, we got a bit hungry again, so we headed back and made a bunch of sandwiches for lunch. after eating we went BACK out on the water again and redid the whole schtick with the pontoon and jetskis.

near the end of the rental period for one of the jetskis, one of the two borrowed jetskis ran out of gas? i think? i don't think any of us actually knew the issue with it. we returned the one rental jetski back to the rental place, and then returned the two borrowed ones back to my uncle.

our fun on the water had ended and we headed back to the condos and rested for a while. me and my brother played a game of Uno Flip and i swear to god it lasted for more than an HOUR.

someone would get down to their last couple of cards but then they would get plus-card comboed to fucking hell and end up with like 15+ cards. not only that, but it took FOREVER to get a card you could play if you had to draw (we were playing with the rule of drawing cards repeatedly until you get one to play). this caused any moment that you couldn't play to turn into like a +10 or something because of how hard it was to get something you can use.

i had nothing to play so i needed to draw some cards, but then it just... kept... going... i probably drew more than 25 cards just to play ANYTHING.

the image on the left is what my hand looked like in the aftermath.

thank god the round ended shortly after that i think i would've lost it if it kept going.

a little while after, we headed out to the farm where my uncle and my grandpa live.

we had a barbeque with burgers and brats, and then we had a bonfire and played some little campfire games.

on the 4th day, we all woke up nice and early to pack our stuff up for the ride home. all of our bags lined up against a wall and all the rooms cleared out of our stuff.

before we hit the road fully, we stopped back by the farm again and said our goodbyes to everyone else. of course, this took like, an hour, y'know how goodbyes go in the midwest.

and then that was it, we hit the highway and i drove another,,, three,, and a half,. hours,..,,.,,.,..,

i had a lot of fun! we haven't gone on a big family vacation like that in a VERY long time and it was nice to get out of the house for once. it was also really nice to get to see the old house we lived in.

when we were all saying our goodbyes to everyone my grandpa had said something to me and i don't think i'll ever forget it. he said goodbye to my brother and said the classic, "stay out of trouble" and "be safe" or whatever. but then he got to me,

"just be happy, that's all that matters."

when my mom told him i was trans he took it very well and this really further proved that. i think that was the first time i've almost cried in response to someone saying something to me like that.

thanks grandpa, i'll try.

- Kat