We head home tomorrow. How these two weeks in our lives have flown! How full of magic and memory they have been! Days that sparkle like sun on the water. We lead a charmed life, indeed. Tonight Nat and I breathed in the smell of the lake from the boat at sunset, bottling it in our hearts to last all winter long, and we breathed out gratitude, deep as the glassy waters, for our wonderful luck.
Packing up some pictures before we pack up the cottage: a little retrospective on the weekend, and a "photo dump" from the waterproof camera. We officially take too many photos. You have been forewarned.
Friday: Last swim lessons! The kids were lucky to have two weeks of instruction with the amazing Kelly. They've both grown so much as swimmers this trip, and she's got so much to do with it. A wonderful, patient teacher who instills confidence in all of the children. A wonderful side benefit of swim lessons this time around has been the opportunity for Jack and Ivy to bond with cousins Alex and Izzy. They are fast friends now.
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| The boys had a castle-building competition judged by Justin, the lifeguard they adore. |
That afternoon Nat and I got out on the lake and went to Goosewatch Winery by boat, then to the Aurora docks where we grabbed a picnic lunch from the market. We motored by our wedding spot and reminisced. Can't imagine a better anniversary date.
We also squeezed in a trip to the MacKenzie-Childs Barn Sale, an annual tradition where we crowd into big tents to spend gobs of money on "sale" priced ridiculous dinnerware. It's a hoot. We were fairly restrained this year, overall. Didn't even buy that chair Ivy wanted, the one that was 50% off-- and still marked $2500. (Poor girl, she really liked that chair... the next day she asked to sit in it-- "The little chair, you know, the one we got at the place we were at last day". Sweet princess, born into the wrong social class...)
Friday night sunset boat ride-- we dashed off spontaneously, taking cousin Sarah along, and went across the lake... where we not only saw a great sunset but also ran into the only other Morehouse boat in use on the lake, an 18 foot inboard that Nat greatly admired.
Saturday: Farley's Point Picnic Day. Cool and windy-- just right for the annual sailboat races.
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| Watching the kids' races. |
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| Even Lightning got in on the action. |
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| Watching the adult races. Nat and Randy both sailed.... Morehouses took 1st and 3rd! |
After lunch: Kids games! Jack lives for these things, despite the fact that they always make him cry. In fact, we placed some bets on just how long it would take for our sweet boy to be in tears. Turns out, we all lost money. He did great, participating-- or watching-- happily, easy and comfortable in the group. What a super nice group of kids. No one was super-competitive, everyone was kind to the little ones. Eighteen kids aged 3-14, all playing perfectly together. It was so much fun to watch.
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| Golf-ball on a spoon races. |
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| Balloon Attack, always a favorite. |
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| Limbo! |
The annual picnic was well attended and picturesque despite some sprinkles throughout. The food was fabulous, and we did such a great job starving our son all day that he ate everything on his plate (who is this boy??). The annual meeting was, well, long. Our family snuck off for a boat ride and then I stayed out for a solo kayak-- a magical 15 minutes of calm dark water, fish jumping and rippling the surface in every direction, dusky light rosy around me.
Today: Not many pictures because we were just too busy enjoying a wonderful day. The cottage was cool and breezy and everyone slept past 8:00. I went for a run to Aurora and met the family there to do a bit of a laundry and pick raspberries and swing and poke around in barns. Then, back to the point where the sun was breaking through the clouds in time for a family canoe ride. Nat rescued a broken decoy from the bottom of the cove and we had a lovely, leisurely paddle. After a quick lunch Nat took Ivy out for her first sail in the Sunfish. Jack and I paddled to the raft and then he went out for a sail too. Then we all splashed and floated and played in the lake for about two more hours. I even got to lay on the raft and read for about 5 minutes, which was totally awesome. Corydon swam back and forth to the dock about 8 times and fell off the kayak twice, which was exciting. Both times she hightailed it back to the dock as if saying, "I meant to do that". Ivy swam back to the dock on just a noodle, no lifejacket (she's all about swimming without a lifejacket now, which is nervewracking but good for her). I even jumped off the raft with Jack to keep him from being too disappointed in me.
Back to land by about 3:00 to warm our blue-lipped children in the sun. We vegged and ate chips in the side yard for quite a while before cousins began to gather and the water balloon play began. It gradually morphed throughout the day and evening from quiet experimentation with flotation and popping on various surfaces, to all-out splash fights, to carrying around, bathing and otherwise caring for a collection of tiny balloons everyone called their babies. Our crew of assembled cousins played with those water balloons for about 6 hours straight. They were interrupted only by dinner (cornell sauce chicken, macaroni salad, and divinely good NY sweet corn) and the occasional dog walking by (everyone has to stop and pet Bos, the 7 month old Mastiff, and Basil, the English Cocker. I love English Cockers, by the way...). Just as Nat sat down to eat, reflecting on what a great day it had been, Jeff walked by and said he and Barb were going out for a ski in a few minutes. So Nat interrupted his dinner to go along and made his day even better. Then, we went for that "one last boat ride" together just us two, while the children played on...
In classic Farley's style, dinner lingered, with neighbors stopping by to talk, the yards and the road in between full of chatter, dogs barking and playing, children laughing and dashing around in the background. I bottled it all up right along with the lake-smell. It was hard to say goodbye to Randy and his family at the end of the night. I just love all of our kids together, and with two weeks it is easy to sink into "normal" and start to take for granted all this being near each other. We will miss them terribly.
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| The water balloon babies. Jack's were named Blue Spot Randall Morehouse and Mr. Mousetache (who had angry eyebrows and was a "bad kid". Ivy's did not have names, but were two and one year old respectively. |
And now for water-pictures. All out of order, I think, but no matter. It was all magical.
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| Intrepid raft dog. Who will jump in after us the moment any of heads go under water. |
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| This one, and her lake-loving smile. |
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| She was trying to lick the dog. |
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| This one, in my sunglasses. |
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| The LOVE riding in Barb's boat. |
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| This guy, who went skiing six times this trip, a new record. |
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| Swimming off the boat. |
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| Out in the rowboat with Lulu to watch the sailboat races. |
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| Even Corydon got in on the sailboat action today. |
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| Its a hard life for a dog. |
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| Sure do love these five! |
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| See you soon, lake. Only 351 days til our next trip... |
