Laking It Up

This past Friday Landon's after school program was closed for an in-service and JP's pool (housed in an after-school program facility) was closed for the same. Taking this as a sign from the divine, we piled everyone in the car at 3 p.m. and drove to my parents' lake house to enjoy one last hurrah with weather warm enough to swim. And for the first time all summer, JP got to come too!

Everything is better when JP and his shoulders get to come to the lake.

As always, we had a marvelous time. As I told JP when I was driving him around on the jetski (he's not allowed to drive when I'm on it because he is a CRAZY PERSON who takes it over 60 mph on choppy days and I try to avoid situations where I will be forced to be furious with him; also, I like my bones and internal organs to stay mostly in one place inside my body), I'm so glad my parents have a lake house with a rope swing and boat and jet ski and all the fun things we would otherwise have to burn money and vacation days to allow our kids to enjoy.

off to the beach!

in the old VW tent/L&C's "house"

And enjoy it they do! Even Cora got into the spirit of things this time around.

lake baby!

She learned that sand does not taste as delicious as it looks.

And she was a very concerned lifeguard in her pack 'n play on the dock.

Landon picked up right where he left off, rope swinging up a storm and getting stronger and more daring each time we come. This trip he was able to hang on long enough to swing out, spin around, come back to the dock, push off with his feet, and do it again. That is at least a 10-year-old skill.

And even little Bear did the rope swing this time! Doesn't she look tiny getting all lined up to go?

But she hung on longer than Landon did last summer and was quite tickled with herself.

After my jetski ride, I decided I might as well break out my very rusty rope swinging skills.

The kids were almost even impressed.

I can't tell if I'm sore from Thursday's barre, Friday's power yoga, or Saturday's hanging upside down by a rope, but my arms are a bit tender. Landon and Claire expressed no such concerns, so apparently soreness is a post-7-year-old thing.

My Aunty K drove over from the Woodlands to hang out Saturday afternoon. She was my jetski buddy and then held Cora for about 3 hours. Both of them thought that was quite excellent.

And amidst all the swimming and rope swinging and boating and tent-building and jetskiing and eating (so much eating), there's also just a lot of time that the kids get to spend with their Papa and Gigi and that is great too.

We got home to yard work, laundry, an empty pantry, and other realities of a weekend away, but we divided and conquered and put the kids to bed nearly an hour early and never heard a peep from either room. The novelty of sitting down on the couch together at 7:15 p.m. without any children awake in the house was well worth any efforts expended in traveling, even if laking it up wasn't already the best way to spend a weekend. Now I'm just setting my morning alarm and waging an internal war of "so tired, so sore, so tiiiired" v. "you love 6:15 barre class and you always feel so happy when you go!".

While that battle rages on, I'll probably fall asleep, having set no alarms at all, reliving the glories of being an upside down swinging big kid again. I may not be able to life my arms above my shoulders, but it was really really fun to get that way. Till next summer, lake house!