A quick but good trip to the lake over the weekend. There were four families, and ten kids total, at this get-together, which made things a little crazy. Especially when the three two-year-olds decided to get wound up. Unfortunately, we were the only family without an older kid – each of the other three had at least a seven-year-old – so our girls lagged behind everyone else a bit. While even the other two-year-olds were hopping into the water (with life jackets, of course), ours would only stick a toe in, or walk ankle deep while holding one of our hands. The house we spent Saturday at sits about 40 feet above the water, with a long staircase down to the boathouse and shore. M. walked up and down that staircase at least 25 times, as she struggled to fit in with the bigger kids and their games. It was a little sad to look up and see her, once again, tentatively starting down the stairs, talking to herself the entire time.
The older girls loved taking care of our girls and the other little ones, though. They kept telling us they were setting up a free daycare so the parents didn’t have to worry about the kids. Free is good. The oldest girl, who will be eight soon and is a total sweetheart, kept picking C. up and carrying her around, which C. completely loved. All the girls (seven of the ten kids were girls) also found a snail and decided to built a little town for him with rocks. By the end of the day, they had built a “house,” “library,” “gym,” and some other structures for him. They also had a birthday party for him. Whatever keeps them occupied.
We pretty much stuck to the boathouse since we had so many people. We took one quick boatride just before lunch, but that was the extent of our true lake time. We had perfect weather: low-to-mid 80s, low humidity, and cool evenings. You can’t ask for better than that in early August.
It was fun to get away. It would have been nice to stay longer, but only if there had been fewer families together for the weekend. I’m sure all the kids were getting on the parents’ nerves. Especially when some of our friends have very different ideas on how to discipline their kids than others do. There were about five minutes Sunday morning, before everyone else had woken up and while our girls were still mellow, when we could just sit there, relax, enjoy the silence, and breath in the clean, cool, lake air. And hope the girls all get scholarships so we can shift some money from the college fund to the lake house fund sooner than later.
We came back early yesterday, as S. had to run into work for a bit. By 12:30, the girls were asleep on the couch. A few minutes after S. left, I was asleep with them. I guess that’s a sign that we had fun.