Lake Time

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.  We were at Lake O for 5 days, then I went to Kansas City for 4 days on a work trip, and then we left the next day for Lake O for another 3 days.  While all of the travel has worn on mommy, I think the kids would go back to the Lake in a heartbeat.  In the past two weeks, we've gotten to see the Shootout (including boats running over 200 mph), went on many boat rides, and ate out at several restaurants on the Lake.  We also had plenty of swimming and relaxing time mixed in there too.  Here are some of my favorite photos of our two lake trips in August.

This past week, we had to say goodbye to a dear companion.  Bill and Lana's dog Hershey passed away last Friday, and this photo was taken less than a week before that.  She was 14 years old.  Both kids loved her, and Barrett especially liked to lay on her and give her hugs.  At one point on the same day this picture was taken, Hershey was standing by the sliding door looking out at the lake, and Barrett walked over to her, put one arm over her back, and laid his head on her shoulder.  It was priceless. 

We worked in some mommy and daughter time in the hammock.  It was fun to relax together. 

 

 Barrett loves helping Papa Pat drive the boat.  In fact, he likes it so much that he gets really mad when he is removed from the driver's seat.  He also figured out how to honk the horn on the boat.  Fortunately (well, maybe sadly for my dad), the Sea Ray has a really sad horn, so it isn't so bad when Barrett constantly pushes it.  I think it sort of sounds like an alarm clock. 

On the day we took the boat to the shootout, Audrey took an entire entourage with her.  She had a pretty sweet setup in the back of the boat.  She also likes playing house down in the cabin; I guess it is pretty cool to have sort of a life-size playhouse.

 When we hang out down at the dock, Barrett loves it when we get his hose out to fill up his pool.  He has learned to put his fingers in the hose to make it spray out everywhere. 

Both kids love the wave runners.  Every day they each have to go on at least one ride.  Billy can sometimes take them both at the same time if it is smooth; I am not that talented. 

Barrett has also taken a liking to the stand ups.  Audrey rode the black one with her dad after seeing me riding last weekend.  I think, however, they both prefer to just pretend to drive the wave runners while they are on the dock. 

 

Of the 8 days we spent at the Lake, it only rained one day.  That was this past Sunday.  It was a crazy storm, but Barrett managed to fall asleep once the rain settled down. 

Since holiday weekends tend to be very busy at Lake O, we spent a lot of time on Labor Day weekend hanging out at the dock to avoid adding to the rough waters by venturing out by boat.  We spent a lot of time with the neighbors (The Dippels and Pabolos).  In fact, we spent so much time with them, that they started influencing Papa Bill's fashion sense. 

 

Audrey and Logan are only one year apart in age, and they love hanging out together. Every morning one of them ventures over to the other's house to say hi, and they are practically inseparable from there.  Audrey has even gotten really good at figuring out who has better food and choosing where she eats lunch. she has also been known to eat several breakfasts; one morning after eating in the house and with Grandma Rosie on the boat, Audrey invited herself to have breakfast next door as well for a total of three breakfasts.  As long as the neighbors don't mind Audrey eating their food, I foresee many more fun summers of swimming together between the docks in our future.