Summer Vacation At The Lake: Part II

My sister, Carissa, got some good pics too, which I have to share.  I’ve found it’s hard to be thorough with photos or even take good ones when I’m running after the two little monkeys.

The kids each have their own lawn chairs, which they LOVE! They came back to the cabin with us again this year! 

It’s also hard to get a family photo in and I always forget to hand off my camera and ask someone to take one.  Carissa is good to me!

Back to the sandbar!  Alexis did pretty decent coming out this time.  Noah was on board too.  The lake floor is really rocky so we have to take our flip flops out with us; the kids also have water socks – SO glad I invested in those!   

The group didn’t know it at the time, but Auntie Laura wasn’t feeling very good during the vacation because she and Uncle Christopher are expecting a baby! 

Uncle Mark (below), Aunt Becky, Brian and Annie the dog were in the cabin next to ours as usual and shared in all the fun, whether it was on the boat…

… or playing cards!  It’s a tradition, but some are apparently growing tired of playing 31.  Tough luck, I say!  I guess the games do get pretty long now that there are, what, at least 12 of us around the table! Just more time to relax!  For the first time in I don’t know how many years, it rained hard enough to force us into the Lounge for the night.  It POURED! We stayed dry!

Getting the kids to nap in the cabin can be a bit of a challenge, even with the amount of fresh air that they were getting.  Bill had pretty good luck, not to mention patience in getting them to sleep with him.

The past couple years, Alexis has been a bit afraid of walking on the docks.  I think being able to see the water through the planks freaked her out a bit.  She did better this year but was still slightly cautious.  Noah was fearless.  He’d walk right up to the edge too and look over into the water.  Talk about freaking ME out!  This kid is going to keep me on my toes!

And before we knew it, we were taking the annual group photo and packing up to go home.  It’s funny, though, how when the end of vacation comes around, going home sounds good too. 

The Cutest Little Vegetable Stand

Now that I’m into canning and fresh vegetables, I’ve made an effort the past couple years to swing by the cutest little vegetable stand in Battle Lake.  It’s an unmanned shack with a wide selection of vegetables all individually priced.

The neat part is that it’s all “on your honor” system.  There’s a little sign, explaining how it works and a little black wooden box with a lock on it and a slot to drop your money inside.  We got some really good corn last year and wanted to get more this time, but I guess the selection depends on the day of the week you visit on.  This time there were just some REALLY large onions, peppers, a few melons and cucumbers.  I grabbed a bag of 5 cucumbers for $2.  Not bad!

Drive a little farther into town and they have a great candy/ice cream shop.  We were also going to pick up some taffy, hoping the kids could also have some.  The girl working the counter was nice enough to show me the ingredient list – taffy has milk; we got them some gummies instead. 

But on the way in, a customer who was eating ice cream outside kindly informed me they don’t take credit/debit cards.  I didn’t have much cash.  She let me know there was a cash machine at the bank around the corner.  So I headed across the street on foot and when I came to the corner, I noticed this:

Too cute, right?  I love the little details of small towns; so quaint and full of personality.

Summer Vacation At The Lake: Part 1

It’s the week I looked forward to the most all summer: one away from technology (there’s barely cell service, let along a wifi signal that you have to sit in the middle of field to get access to), next to a beach, and out in the great outdoors with family.

And what else do you want to do after making the 4-hour drive with the kids?  Board the pontoon and take a ride around the lake!

 

Brian even helped Noah take over the controls.  That was just the first of many spins around the lake.  Don’t worry, we’ll get to those. 

I was really impressed about Noah’s interest in the water.  Last year, it took us a LONG time to even get Alexis in the water.  Noah was okay floatin’ around in his tube.  But he took to the shoreline real well… just plopped down and dug right in.  And once Alexis saw him do it, she was okay with it too.  But that’s all the farther she was going to go in the water… at least for now.

Before we knew it, Noah was taking his board out into the water, so we showed him how to float on it and he tried his hardest, but the water was still a little too chilly on his tummy. 

The playground offered a whole extra adventure.  It’s funny how it didn’t matter that we play on ours at home nearly EVERY night, this one was just as exciting to them: up the ladder, down the slide, up the plank, down the slide, swing, swing, up the ladder, down the slide, repeat for the next four days.

If sliding in their jammies wasn’t going to wear them out, I don’t know what would.  It certainly helped get them into bed though.  We all slept in the tent, with a pack-n-play for Noah and Alexis got to sleep in the “princess room” AKA the “dog den” (where you see Noah below).

One of our favorite places to go in the pontoon is a sandbar that allows you to walk into the middle of one of the lake’s “fingers” about waist deep. Alexis wasn’t quite ready to go for the walk.  This time around, Noah wasn’t very willing to wear his blue life vest, so he got to wear the fun green monster.  He and Dad waded out into the water, one step at a time.  But in all the excitement, I guess I forgot to switch out his diaper for a swimming diaper.  Like the droopy drawers? LOL

So, we took off the soggy, over saturated diaper and let him run around fancy free for a couple of minutes.  Got some great photos of that… but you’ll have to take my word for it. 

Once we got a dry diaper back on him, it was time for a Sunbutter and jelly sandwich as we headed back to the shore.

 

Uncle Brent made pink fluff – All By Himself.  Good stuff too! Then he tried to school the guys on cribbage… a game I haven’t played in SUCH a long time.  He may need to give me a refresher course!

We pulled out the “monkey balls” and Noah caught on right away, that is, the fact that they look like “monkey bars”.  So, why not try to climb them, right?  It wasn’t too much longer before he was ready to crash… with his own monkey.

Oh, How My Garden Grows!

Alexis woke up sick, so I had to stay home with them.  My new schedule is kind of helpful with sick days because I go to work in the morning until around 9 a.m., which means I only have to take half a sick day since I already have 4 hours in.  Then I go relieve Bill and he’s able to go to work about an hour late.  I tend to figure when she’s home throwing up, that he could do the same at any moment or is contagious too.  So, I just keep him home as well.

While the kids were napping, I took a moment to step outside to document the garden.  Take a look at my yellow pepper plants!

Not all of the tomato plants took off; I lost about five.  But that left a dozen or so, which I’m sure will be plenty!  It was time for cages, which I will install right away next year and buy the big heavy duty ones.

After nap, we did some painting.  I figured it gave me an excuse to let them get a little dirty, in case I was going to have to clean up Alexis again anyway.  They did a pretty good job!  Now I just have to frame the artwork.

   Have we mentioned how much Noah loves his sock monkey?

Alexis made it through the rest of the day without getting sick and we were able to get by without Noah getting sick too.  You just never know with that kid!