Lake of the Ozarks

For me, a special place is a place that many memories have come from. It's a place that gives me a lot of nostalgia when I smell a certain smell or taste a certain taste. This place for me is the Lake of the Ozarks. This is one of my favorite places to be. I grew up spending my summers there. It’s something I still look forward to going into every summer. My grandparents have had this really small lake house long before I was even born. We have a huge family so trying to fit everyone into that house was a challenge but that was a huge part of why it made it so fun. 

All of us cousins would squeeze into bunk beds and I remember us staying up so late laughing for hours. Hotdogs, burgers, and chips were all we ate there. There was a sand pit and we spent so much time playing “house” there. We also had this water trampoline that we would all swim under and at the time it was so scary to us. It was suspenseful not knowing if someone would be able to swim under it and come back up. We also had a high dive that we would jump off of for hours. My grandma would also take some of us young girls on the jet ski and we couldn't stop laughing. There was an endless amount of activities there.

This place was also really special to us because of my uncle that passed away. His name was Jake. The lake was his favorite place and it reminds us all of him. He was really good at water skiing. He spent most of his hours there fishing because that was his favorite thing to do. Most of my favorite memories of him are from the lake. I remember one time he dove down to the  bottom of the lake and came back up with a snapping turtle. He was around 16 years old at the time and my grandma was yelling at him to let it go and it was so funny to us younger cousins.

Five years ago my grandparents bought a much bigger and nicer lake house and we've continued to spend our summers at the new one. Every once in a while we take a trip to go look at the old house and reminisce on all the great memories we made there. Even though I'm so grateful for the old one, I love the new house just as much. There are still so many activities, if not more. We've already created so many memories that I am going to remember for the rest of my life.

A big part of being at the lake for us is water skiing. My grandpa was really good at skiing when he was younger and one of his wishes is that all of his grandkids learn how to ski. Most of us know how too now. I learned how to slalom ski two summers ago and have loved it ever since. 

With all that being said. There is not another place that could be this special to me. I hope to bring my kids and grandkids to the lake and give them the same experience that I was able to have growing up. I am forever grateful that I have been able to have these experiences in my life to draw me closer to my family.