A Week at the Lake

The week before the 4th we went to the lake with my grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Every single one of my grandparents posterity was there at least one point during the week. We had a blast and the time went way too fast.

At the end of the week of my first year of girls camp, I remember my friend Rachel admitting to us that she hadn't changed out of her swimming suit for the whole week. This memory came back to me the week we were on vacation. Although we did take Little Man out of his swimming suit to sleep and there were baths given, he basically wore his suit all week long. Every day there was some sort of swimming or boating or something to do in the water. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us doing our many water adventures. A couple of years ago we went on a trip to the ocean with a brand new camera and when we came home we had a broken, unusable camera filled with salt water (don't want to talk about it). Since then, I have been overly cautious with my camera and water.

On Wednesday we went to a water slide park. Both Little Man and Kiwi enjoyed the kiddie slides, but Little Man even got to go on a couple of the bigger ones with an adult. It was a lot of fun. Since becoming parents, Mike and I have had the discussion about how often we do things for the kids, but that watching our kids have fun is actually fun for us. The water park was neat, however, because Little Man was having a blast, and so was I. And not just because I was enjoying the look on his face (although I was), but because I think I like water slides just as much as he does. As our children get older, it's fun to start to enjoy some activities together.

There was a pool not too far from our house and both the kids loved it. Little Man had these water wings and he was all over the place putting his face in the water, kicking, jumping in, doing cannonballs. We definitely need to get him into some swimming lessons again.

Kiwi's favorite thing to do was to jump. She would stand on the edge (it had to be right on top of the number that tells you how many feet it is) and then she would just fall to us. She would do it over and over and over again. Since we have been home, we've actually had problems with her being on the stairs or couch and simply saying "jump" and falling straight off with no warning leaving Mike or I scrambling to catch her. We've had to remind her that we are not in a pool and that she needs to wait until we are ready.

Out little family took out a paddle boat and a kayak. Both times we pretended that we were pirates. Little Man named himself Longbeard, Kiwi was Shortbeard, Mike was No Beard, and I was Mommy Long Beard. We plundered and terrorized all of our fellow boaters (or at least those who were in our extended family).

Right on the lake near where the mini golf and rentals were was an old school park. It had a swing set, wooden teeter totter, metal climbing things, a super high metal slide, and even a merry go round. It had everything they have taken out of the parks that my kids play at (probably because of safety reasons) and reminded of parks I grew up with. Swings have some sort of magnetic pull on our little girl. If she is in eyesight of a swing her little body automatically starts to drift towards it. It doesn't matter what else is being offered.

"Do you want to go on a paddle boat? Look, you get to wear a life jacket! C'mon we're going swimming! Look, you get your own mini golf club AND ball!"

Nothing. Her eyes are focused, her little finger pointing to the swings and she is repeating, "Park, park, park." This chant will become a full out wail if anyone dares to detour her from her beloved swings. Basically every trip to the lake had at least one swing session in it. I think she would literally swing all day if someone would push her that long.

Kiwi on the back of a bike with Mike. She thought this was pretty cool. Little Man also got a ride. I was impressed that Mike got him up the hill.

One of the highlights of the trip was spending time with my sister Mallory, her husband Brandon, and their little girl. They live in Iowa and we don't get to see them nearly as much as I would like to. Both Brandon and Mal are great with kids. Here is Brandon reading a book to three of the little girl cousins including Kiwi. Since they went back to Iowa Little Man has been asking about them daily.

Every night we would have some sort of family activity. One night we did games in a big field and both of our kids had a blast. It was fun to watch Little Man actually grasp the concept and really participate in a lot of the games. Kiwi just enjoyed running around in the grass. That is she enjoyed it until the sprinklers came on unannounced sending us all running. She didn't think that was so much fun. For the rest of the week whenever we passed the field she would worriedly ask me about the sprinklers until I would confirm to her that yes, the sprinklers did come on when we were playing games, but that no the sprinklers were not going to come on now.

Kiwi and Little A hanging out in their strollers.

On Tuesday, my grandparents had a photographer come out and take pictures. This is one snapped with our camera of all the girls. Kiwi wanted no part of the pictures, ran away every time there was a break, and wiggled and cried during most of them. Trying to get pictures with little kids frustrating. I think we got some good ones though. And even if Kiwi is crying in them, we couldn't miss the chance to get almost every single one of Grandma and Grandpa's posterity in the picture (only one cousin and his family was missing. They came up the next day).

My cousin Kyle is engaged and brought his fiance Jennie up. Tuesday afternoon we went to this cute little cafe my grandma found online and had a shower for her. It was fun to have some girl time.

Little Man and his Cousin Diego. They are actually second cousins, but we just say cousins. They are only six weeks apart and they have a lot of fun together. All in all there were fifteen kids eight at and under so there was always someone for Little Man to play with. It was fun to see how well the kids got a long even though they don't all see each other very often. One night Little Man said, "Mommy I think Dana (my cousin's little girl who lives in Kentucky) likes me. We get along together good." And that really was the case with the kids for most of the week. There was a lot of noise, a lot of playing, but not too much fighting.

On Wednesday my grandparents and their four children and spouses went out to dinner. Us adult grandchildren were left in charge of our own kids and all the younger grand kids. After the kids had been fed and played (Uncle Brandon was the ringleader of all the games outside) and were either in bed or passed out on the couch somewhere the older boys played Botchi ball and us girls learned some salsa dancing from Paula and Miriam. We then put together a whole cheer with the help of Jannelle who was a cheerleader in high school. The girl is seven months pregnant and she was jumping around and kicking her foot higher then any of the rest of us. It was really fun to spend time with my Texas girl cousins who are growing up so fast, my sister, my wonderful sister-in-law, and my cousin-in-laws, who just feel like cousins.

On Thursday we had our annual Family Fun Run. We've held it at the same lake every time until this year. Since the majority of the family was on the trip, it was decided that we would try a new course. We even made it into a duathlon adding an optional swimming leg on at the end. Little Man was very excited for the race. That morning he opted to not go with the swimming suit and got himself dressed in his running clothes and then insisted on putting on his warm ups despite the heat (I am willing to bet there was no one within twenty miles of us wearing sweats and a long sleeve shirt that morning). He insisted on wearing warm ups right up to the start of the race and then he ran the whole thing with Mike. I was in the walking group for the first time ever because someone needed to push Kiwi. We only had a little umbrella stroller so I went as fast as I could with that and then swam at the end. It was a lot of fun.

Happy 4th of July from our Little Sparkler!

The three cousins going for a tube ride in the front lawn. Little Man actually went on a single person tube behind the boat on my lap VERY slowly, but he didn't like it much. It might have something to do with the fact that he watched my Uncle Lance flip everybody who proceeded him on the tube into the water. He was very nice to Little Man, but he was still nervous.

Then when I went on, Little Man asked why I wasn't doing the hand signals (thumbs up=faster). If I could have heard that question I would have answered my sweet little boy that I wasn't asking to go faster because I was perfectly happy at the pace I was going. I did not hear the question, however, and those in the front of the boat who did told Little Man he could do them for me. So although he was nervous about his own well being in the tube, he had no qualms about giving non stop thumbs up to Uncle Lance who proceeded to whip me around until I flew off two times. Little Man found this to be very entertaining and although I got a bruise on my thigh from hitting the water so hard it was a lot of fun.

This is what Kiwi looked like most of the three plus hour ride home. She alternated between crying, whining, and sometimes outright screaming that she was "tuck" (stuck) and that she wanted out. We left about 10:00 on the 4th. The plan was to come home and then go to a bigger family reunion encompassing all my great-great grandparents posterity. By the time we got home, however, we were all wiped and we didn't make it.

We ended up putting the kids to bed early that night and putting in a movie for ourselves (which I feel asleep during). It wasn't a very eventful fourth, but it was sure a fun week leading up to it. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful extended family. Thanks to everyone who made it possible especially Darrel and Holly and Grandma and Grandpa! We love you guys.