Annual Lake Vacation Recap

We are back from our annual summer vacation at my parents’ lake home. We had a great time and lucked out with the weather. We had one day of rain which was ok as that gave us a chance to take the boys to a local toy store and not feel guilty about ‘wasting’ a beautiful morning. When I am at the lake I feel like we have to soak up all the sunshine and beautiful views so it kind of nice to do something different. 

Here is a photo-heavy recap! During our week at the lake, we…

(Belatedly) Celebrated daddy’s birthday!

Taco especially enjoyed the chocolate syrup on his ice cream!

Went on lots of pontoon rides! The boys enjoyed driving with papa. 

The boys enjoyed lots of swing rides!

Lots of fish were caught. 

We roasted marshmallows and enjoyed s’mores.

A rare photo of all 4 of us!!

There was some cousin time! 

The boys had ice cream at ‘Granny’s Pantry’ which is a place I frequented a lot as a child.

And there was lots of beach time!

After Taco was in bed, Paul and the adults played Pictionary each night, which Paul loved! After Paul was in bed, the adults played rummy.

Of course it wasn’t all good - there was plenty of horse play and shenanigans… 

Phil did his annual swim across the lake (which we estimate to be about 1.5 miles). I kayak alongside/just ahead of him. Sounds idyllic, right? Well for me this is one of those things I do not enjoy doing but do out of love for Phil. This year we had calm waters to start but before long it was quite wavy. It is very hard to steer a 2 person kayak in choppy water so there were some terse exchanges when Phil took a break from swimming and would ask where exactly I was aiming the kayak. And then my wrist and forearm started to act up, I assume due to my RA. But Phil enjoyed himself and was just 1 minute slower than his previous PR.

But all in all, it was a wonderful change of scenery. And now Phil and I are back home without the boys as they will spend the week with my parents. It sounds like they’ve been on their best behavior so far. It will be nice for Phil and I to have a chance to reconnect without kids around and this gives the boys a chance to make priceless memories with their grandparents. I’ll head back to the lake on Friday morning to spend a couple nights and then will bring them back.

We have a busy fall ahead of us as I have 9 trips in the last 4 months of the year so we are going to soak up the silence and free time. The first night we were like - what do we do with all this time???