Saturday, August 23, 2008

A few pictures from the Lake

The pictures here do not in any way tell the whole story of the Lake Experience. There is so much to do there and yet you don't have to do anything. That is the beauty of it. Even Max, David and Vanessa's Dog thought the Lake was wonderful. He brought his elephant and loved to carry it around and beg people to try to get it away from him. He loved to go for walks and bark at people, but because of his very scary deer experience, when he saw a deer, his hair on his neck stood up and he whined a little, but there was no brave barking or chasing deer anymore. He hated to swim, but David insisted that he swim, so he did. He went for boat rides and he loved to follow Ruby around. Once when Marty was growling and pretending to bite Liam, Max got upset and barked at Marty and growled at him. He loved the babies and wanted to lick them all the time, but the Mom's insisted that he not do that. So we were always chasing him away from the babies. On Sunday, we all got dressed up in our Sunday clothes and climbed into our cars and headed for church. Whe we got there, there were no cars in the parking lot and there was a note on the door saying that it was Stake Conference. So we went back to the house and held a little improptu sunday school class. We talked about missionery work. We talked about how we pray for the missioneries to be led to those who might be open to the gospel, but do we actually follow up our prayers with action. "Faith without works is dead". The rest of the day we napped and read. It was a nice quiet day. Vanessa and David did the cooking on Friday and Saturday. Saturday they made hamburgers which were deliceous because they seasoned the meat and put onions and peppers chopped up really fine. Then on Saturday, they made their famous enchelada's with bean sauce. Everyday was a great meal and we also had guacomole and chips every day because we could. Mindy and Marty made Cafe Rio one night and Becca and Ryan made fabulous Super Nachos with cheese sauce (to die for). The last night we had barbecued salmon and salad. All of us gained a few pounds for sure. Here we see Pretty Mindy. She said there were'nt enough pictures of her, so she took her own picture and insisted that I include it in my blog. My opinion, she needed a nap. Speaking of naps, naps were a favorite past-time for all of us. We would sneak one in whenever we could. Did I tell you that Lydia took a nap whenever she was told to. Amazing!!! Reading was another favorite pastime. Everyone had a book that they were reading, but it was hard to get time to read with so many distractions. I didn't finish my book, and now that I'm back to work, I don't see that I will ever finish it. Time has dimished my attachement to the characters so I probably won't. Anthony and Jeremy were very busy helping with the babies, but they did get some time to go tubing and swimming and they were spent some time on the neighbors trampoline. We had a new toy at the Lake that someone let us borrow. It was a Wii game. We really had fun with it, and I BEAT JEREMY IN BOXING!!!!!WOO HOO. Jeremy was the champ, and I only beat him once, and I have no idea how I did it, but it was a thrill. We went to the park near the house a couple of times and Ruby loved the slide and she loved to talk to the older kids. We also had baby pedicurs. Here is Ruby's lovely toes that Aunt Raquel did for her. I painted Lydia's and she was lucky to get all her toes painted once because she was really wiggly. She watched as I brushed the color onto her toes and then she would wiggle her toes and then her whole body. But one by one we got it done. Liam loved to bite his daddy's nose. Not sure about this one, but it was fun to watch. We spent a lot of Happy time together. It was unimaginable bliss. Kim was seldom without her shadow, Ruby. Sometimes I felt sorry for her because she was not able to do her thing, like read her book or nap but other times I was jealous that Ruby chose Kim to be her best buddy. And sometimes I felt sorry for Ruby because there is no one her age in our family. I got to see Ruby in action with Liam and they are so cute together. The babies were aware of each other but not enough to play together except Liam could not bare to see a toy in Lydia or Lucy's possession and was sure to try to get it away from them when he did. You could not distract him from his mission of getting that toy away from his cousin. It was a do or die mission. Lydia and Lucy were oblivious. Lydia was crawling everywhere. She loved to go up the stairs, but once she fell down them and from then on she was forbidden to climb the stairs. All the babies were good. I hardly ever heard them scream or cry. Lydia napped on demand, which I'm pretty sure isn't normal. It is so much fun to watch my children be parents. They are different creatures from when I knew them growing up at home. I know I have said this before, but there is such a hugh difference from one generation to the next. The model continues to get better and better. We made homemade ice cream in an old fashioned handcrank ice cream maker. Raquel was so excited about this and she had invisioned making happy memories as we cranked the crank, but without exception everyone grumbled about cranking the handle and they wished it was electric, but they were all happy to eat the icecream which we smothered in fresh peaches and strawberries and caramel and chocolate sauce. Those are the happy memories. Marty, Mindy, and Raquel went faithfully every morning for a run. They were dedicated to working off all the food we were eating. Max and I went every morning for a walk and I swam every day in the Lake. On Thursday Russ was getting ready to leave and he was putting away the ping pong table and one side fell down on top of his hand and sliced off the top of his middle finger. it was quite painful and messy. I put a nice gauze bandage on his finger and Raquel took him into the emergency room for stitches. He stayed one more day and then went home on Friday. He's still wearing a brace to keep his finger straight so the stitches will heal. It looks like he is always giving everyone the finger. He probably is. Ryan and Becca left Wednesday to go to Tracy to visit her family before going home, and Marty and Mindy left on Friday. Raquel and Kim and I left on Saturday. It took for ever to pack up and get the place cleaned up. It's all those last minute things that seem to take so long. I'm glad we had this time together and looking forward to another visit next year.

2 comments:

  1. LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS posting!! yeah, you should write a book your very good about the fun details that I forget, I only write about the pics and it's slim at that .... thank you for this post, I want to steal some pictures from it...they are precious like the one with max and ruby in the glasses and the one of liam biting marty's nose and all the napping folk, and of course that beautiful one of me....ha

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  2. Those are fabulous pictures. Can we go back right now?

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