A picture walk at the point

This post will be short on narrative and long on pictures.  We've gotten a bit behind in our downloading but haven't slowed our picture-taking.  It's hard to keep up with all the cute and picturesque that's been going on during this trip......

Week two of Farley's 2013 has brought warmer weather, quiet days at the point, swimming lessons, campfires, boat rides, and a lovely afternoon date.  Chats with neighbors and family dinners abound.  We've been lighting a lot of "glow worm" firecrackers in the road and picking too-tart apples from the little tree down the point.  Lulu has a new kitten!  Our children are getting tan.  The water is calm and crystalline and the perfect temperature to stay in all day.  Life is very, very good. 

With no further ado, and not at all in chronological order, are pictures of the loveliness. 

1.  Swimming lessons.  A nice structure to the day and bonding time for cousins, swim lessons at Harris Park in Cayuga are a treat.  We head out at 9:30 and don't return til noon and for the hours in between our children become one with the sand, digging and splashing and working cooperatively to lug buckets of water up the steep beach.  

They are also learning quite a bit about swimming.  Today,   halfway through week two, we had a few milestones.

Here is Jack doing a sitting dive off the raft.  He also swam out there, on his own steam, no floaties.

And here is Ivy-the-little-fish, putting her whole face in the water!  She simply adores her lesson, where she and cousin Izzy and one other adorable boy create unbearable cuteness as they splash and kick.  

2. A visit from some of our favorite people!  OK, this was last week.  A lot of these pictures are from last week.  Let's just let that go and focus on the fact that some of our favorite people were here in our favorite lake.  Our friends stayed for a lovely overnight on their way home from Boston.  It was such a treat to have them stay right here on the point.....

3. Time in the cottage.  We spend quiet mornings playing on the porch, painting or drawing or playing iPad games, and in the afternoon this tiny place becomes a magnet for all the kids.  They've been loving the melty bead craft we brought along (the vaccuum loves it too...) and playing bingo with the "cage" Nat rescued from his mom's attic, and sometimes we come in to find Sarah just reading one of our books.  

Our little girl gets worn out by the point.  I like it.  She's snuggly and cute. 

Walked into the bedroom yesterday to find that Ivy had put about half of her tube of Triple paste (the miracle treatment for eczema that Emily told us about, thank you Emily!!!) onto her leg to take care of a bug bite.  I looked down at her, and just started to laugh.  I wish I could have captured her face as she froze, looked up at me, and said, "Its not my fault!"

 4.  Time in the water.  Need I say more?

Ivy is one fierce ladybug.

I think this may be my favorite photo from the trip so far.  These kids seriously love each other.

We totally rock the kayak with a parasol.  It's for the dog, you know.

Ivy would like for you to know that her eyes are BLUE, and she REALLY LIKES SWIMMING AT NIGHT!

5. Time on the water.  The Morehouse boat is in fine form and we've been enjoying it immensely.  We just took it over to the bi-annual boat reunion on Saturday, and have been out for several sunset rides, which may be my favorite thing in life.  It's a grand boat and I always feel very schnazzy, and hip in that vintage sort of way, when we go for rides.  

Nat and Randy at Long Point.

6.  Lulu's new kitten, Sky!  Claire spent three afternoons at the cat farm before deciding on this little sweetie.  The kids are enamored of her. Sky for her part has not yet decided about the kids.

7.   Time just hanging out on the point....  Surrounded by family, new friends and old.  Corydon is the self-appointed "point guard" and woowoowoo's at every passer by.  The kids play in the street and help each other get to the side quickly when a car approaches.  Everyone waves when they go by.  Jack has been scootering all over the place on his newly acquired Razor scooter (thank you, Re-Use store!) and Ivy is most often seen traipsing about in her panties.  I love this place.

Sometimes I think we take too many photos of our children.  Then I look at pictures like this one and I think we don't take enough.

We managed to get Jack to smile AT the camera a few times.  

Of course we have a lot more shots that look like this one...

Girlie is enjoying her balance bike.... for about half the trip to wherever we are going.  Luckily it has a nice handle.

The little dock.  A grand gathering spot to fish for seaweed, throw rocks, and look out at the perpetually calm cove.

The whole fam-damily.

At our most recent family/friends dinner Ivy convinced 3 dinner guests to change into pink shirts.  Donna, her new friend here, also brought her a pink flower and plate.  We now know who really runs the Point.

We hear a lot of "Yeah, baby!" from this little face.

These two, the dynamic duo, have enjoyed doing various tasks (up to and including getting a dead fish off the beach and taking it to the compost area) to get "super powers" meted out by Master Uncle Nat. "Yeah baby!" is pretty much their catch phrase as they enthusiastically tackle each challenge.

Smore's party at Barb's cottage. Jack ran off with the big kids to roam around the end of the point.  He was in heaven.  When did he grow up so completely????

8.  Best date afternoon, ever.  Today Claire took the kids for a few hours and Nat, Corydon and I had a marvelous outing.  We window shopped at MacKenzie Childs (you wouldn't peg them for a dog-friendly store, would you?) before taking off by boat for the wineries across the lake.  It was perfect on the water.  The lake was ours alone and it practically glowed in the afternoon light.  We ogled beautiful lakefront properties and dreamed and talked and laughed.  We showed off our lovely dog and our lovely boat and drank lovely wines at two different places and came home with 5 bottles and a treasured afternoon together.  

I do not take a single one of these blessings for granted.