A Cracked Pot: The lake

Some friends of ours invited us to join them for a few days at their families lake house. It didn't take a moments thought on our part to say yes! This view wasn't hard to wake up to each morning, let me tell you.

Sophie and Gabi weren't exactly sure what to think of each other all the time, but I think these little cheeseballs will be great friends one day.

Gabi being Gabi

Jess's sister came over to take family pictures for us. (an amazing blessing) This is Gabi all dressed up and ready. She is holding her "Maddie" doll. Karis never had a doll that was special to her, so it is fun to see Gabi loving her blanky and Maddie. Fun, except when you are looking all over for them at bedtime. I must say, thumbs are much easier to find. :-)

Karis adores Maddie and Lexie. Convincing her that she needed to go to bed before them was difficult. Somehow my five year old was convinced she was entitled to stay up as late as the big girls.

The daddies firing up for s'mores. I have never seen marshmallows as big as the ones Jess brought.

See the marshmallows coming out the side there? That is only ONE.

Enjoying her first S'more. She is hooked.

Faith learned to waterski. I was so proud of her. It didn't take all that long, either. I think three tries and she was up!

Look at her go!

Faith graciously came along to help. I couldn't have done it without her. She sent me back to bed some mornings. Helped make sure the girls were dressed, etc. Watched them down at the dock. And on, and on, and on..... I'm so grateful God provides help when I need it.

This is where the kids spent most of their day. I asked Karis on the way up if she was excited to see her friends.

"There not my friends, mom, they're my cousins."

And they truly are more like cousins. Since all her real cousins are either older or a lot younger we have decided to adopt the Rivers. :-)

This is where we sat and watched the kids more often than not. Ironically this is just a few hours before we yet again celebrated our time together by going to the emergency room.

For the record, it wasn't because of me. Jess got Polymorphic Skin Eruption. I just love saying that, by the way.

It's sun poisoning. She didn't have a bad burn, it's just some random thing that happens that makes you absolutely miserable. Like stinging nettles all over your skin. She did get some relief, but our last day at the lake wasn't very fun for her.

The adults were the walking wounded. Jared had burst both eardrums. OUCH.

I was just me. Problems, of course.

Dustin was tired, but he was the best out of all of us.

And them Jess had Polymorphic Skin Eruption.

Still, I'm glad we had the opportunity to spend those days together!

Like I said, they lived down here. Swimming, sand buildings, fishing with a net. They caught tons of fish.

Some little kid had told the Rivers kids that if you hummed at the fish it calmed them. Totally untrue. Or so I was told, but the kids were unconvinced.

This made for some chuckles on our parts as our little kiddos hummed all week at their catches. The fish didn't seem to mind as long as they were fed and tossed back in.