After growing up in Minnesota where EVERYONE has a cabin, I always knew I wanted a weekend getaway for my family. With all the craziness always going on between work, activities, and even hour hobbies, I wanted a place where we can unplug and just spend some time together. Somewhere our kids will want to go and actually spend time with us as we all get older. Somewhere they can take their friends as teenagers and young adults, and maybe even some future grandchildren (WAAAAYYY in the future but it makes me sentimental just thinking about it!).
Just a place for good quality family and friend time on the boat, curled up with a good book, or enjoying each other’s company over a cup of coffee or glass of wine.
Now that the kids aren’t quite babies anymore, we started looking at lake houses down here in Texas earlier this spring. And we finally found one we loved and closed a week ago. The lake views from the many rooms in the house, the double-decker deck, and the dock are definitely what sold me! Here’s a picture of a sunset from the 2nd story deck.
The funny thing is when I said I wanted a cabin, I think everyone starts to think about a tiny little log cabin. I guess I didn’t realize “cabin” was such a geographically specific term and that “lake house” is the more acceptable term to use down here in Texas.
So last weekend was the first weekend to go there and start moving stuff in and figuring out how to decorate. I’m very design-impaired, so I knew I would need a lot of help! After working with interior designers in the past and being frustrated with the process and expense, I knew I didn’t want to go down that road again. So I decided to try out one of the online interior design services.
I ended up going with Havenly because I found a coupon (and I have one for you!) and the price was right, I liked the design questionnaire to identify my style, and I loved the convenience of ordering everything all in one place. Meredith, my Havenly designer, stuck with my minimal budget to find great pieces at affordable prices that fit our family’s needs and stay in line with my coastal/beachy vision. And they even provide a mock-up showing all the furniture, accessories, and layout!
It’s the easiest way to work with an interior designer, all online. You can use my referral link, and get $50 off a Full design package or $20 off a Mini design package.
The process was quick and painless with no driving all over town to different stores. I placed the order on Saturday and most of the items should be here by Friday so we can enjoy it this weekend.
Anyway, while we were unpacking all the stuff we had saved from George’s mom’s house after she passed away, we started making a list of things we needed around the house. Wine glasses, more pillows, can opener, toaster… WEIGHTS! So there I was for the weekend without my treadmill, weights, or even a resistance band. And it was way too hot and steamy to go for a run, let alone a walk (although we didn’t have our Bob stroller either).
While the 85 steps down to the lake definitely got my heart rate up and made my butt burn, I still wanted a little more of a workout. So I thought of my favorite and most effective no-equipment exercises to work the glutes. And I came up with these 9 best booty exercises to tone your tush without any weights or equipment.
It was a great workout to do in a pinch, but I’ll definitely be packing my resistance bands from now on and probably order a set of my favorite Neoprene Hand Weights from Target and some resistance loops to keep there. I might even take my spin bike (that I bought used from another mom and have literally used twice) if I can convince George to haul it up there.
One of my work friends saw a picture on my Instagram stories and had the brilliant idea of a girls weekend retreat with yoga on the dock. After seeing that gorgeous sunrise over the lake, I can’t imagine anything more perfect than (trying to do) some yoga on the lake and a hot coffee in the morning. Of course, now we’ll just need to befriend a yoga instructor to make this happen 😉
But for the weekend, we enjoyed some boating (docking our massive pontoon was comical), our new Nespresso machine, lunch at Stumpy’s lakeside grill, and a skinny margarita while stargazing with the kids.
On Sunday, we returned home to Fort Worth and I squeezed in a Corepower Yoga Sculpt class before heading over to our neighbors’ weekly Sunday Dinner with all our friends.
As I’m typing this, I know it sounds more enjoyable than it really was… I’m blocking out memories of late night grocery shopping after dinner with cranky kids, ALL the unpacking and moving furniture, the kids refusing to go to sleep until nearly 10:30 pm and then waking up at 6:30 am, and not really having a place to lounge without furniture.
But I’m so excited for all the fun family memories to come at our new family lake house getaway!
What do you like to do for family fun on the weekends? Do you have any particular places you go for family getaways?
