Lake Life, week two

Here's what we've been up to this past week.

Swim lessons:  Sand mountain, chilly water, chatting on a bench.  Jack is thrilled to be in a lesson of "all cousins," and is learning butterfly, and Ivy is perfecting her "underwater backfloat" in her class with Reese.  We love teacher Kelly!

Hanging around outside the cottage...

watching the "wedding" trailer...

Fishing off the tiny dock by our cottage.   no catches so far, but always fun...

The five-year-old cousin set, stenciling together...

 ... and inside the cottage...

(lazy lake mornings!  nothing better in the world!  water-breezes, snuggly children, nowhere else to be.... heaven!)

 Our friends stopped to stay for the night.  We are so happy when they are here with us!

Seven people in the tiny cottage??  No problem!  Room-of-kids was a great success for the second year running.  This year, all four read (or "read")  themselves to sleep.  Too cool.

They are helping to deflate an air mattress, in case you were wondering. 

 We took a family canoe trip across the cove to find the eagle nest.  It's in the second tree to the right of the dead tree, see it?  We saw an eagle!  Sitting in the dead tree as we approached, it took flight before the camera was out...

 More photo shoots and runway walks in the fancy dress, of course.  Cousin Izzy got in on the action, too...

We enjoyed some time with friends Sarah and Joe and baby Casey (who is too cute to handle). Their stay went too fast!

That face!!  What a sweet baby.

 Of course, what Farley's trip would be complete without spinning yarn and then dyeing it ochre yellow with Osage Orange wood?

Ivy helping to turn the skein into a ball.  Fun times. 

Ivy, David, Hannah and I spent some quality time reading together one afternoon.  Ivy has discovered the joys of Richard Scarry.  She is slightly obsessed with Ozzie the Ostrich.

 Blessing of the Boats-- a sweet Aurora tradition wherein people bring their boats to the lake by the Catholic Church and they are, in fact, blessed.  Our boat was not in to bring, and we did not stay long, but we were there long enough to see this:

 Isn't Aurora just too lovely??

 AuroraFest!  We managed to participate in very little of the fest this year but all four of us did join in for the run!

 Ivy completed her first mile (12:35) with Daddy in tow.  Jack ran his mile all on his own and got a Personal Record (8:25) and third in his age group.  I completed the 2.5 mile in a decent time (21:20) which earned me second in my age group.  Or, last in my age group, depending on which way you prefer to look at second-out-of-two....

 We missed the parade this year because we could not turn down the opportunity to get out on a boat for the first time this season.  The lake was so perfect.  The kids were squealing with happiness.  There is nothing like the freedom of flying over that magnificent water at high speeds...

We met up with neighbors out on the lake where kids hopped from boat to boat, Nat went for a ski, and we had a swim in what neighbor Barb calls "the deep end".

 A grand way to spend the afternoon, for sure.

Later that day, a Farley's tradition:  the communal putting-in-of-docks.   Usually an early-summer event, Nat got to be a part of it this year as these same docks were just taken out a few weeks back because of the high water.  These guys put in and/or fixed and leveled 4 docks on Saturday.  And had a great time doing it, from the looks of it..
 

Saturday night-- Anniversary Date!  Claire kept the kids and Nat and I had a most excellent afternoon exploring the towns on Seneca Falls and Geneva before having a super-fancy dinner out at Belhurst Castle.

Even though Cayuga has our hearts, it turns out Seneca Lake is pretty lovely too. We were very impressed with Geneva.  I could spend more time there, for sure.  

Belhurst Castle is currently a hotel and inn but the floor plans mounted in the hallway showed what was once an incredible private residence.  Wish we could have poked around in that place some more.  It was magnificent.

Today, we went on an adventure to the Fossil Pit.  

Really.  It's a pit.  Full of fossils.

Sitting in the sun, breaking apart rocks...  should have felt like being at a prison work camp, yet it was strangely addictive and more fun than I anticipated..

One of the best we found...

 Family Dinner tonight.  Cousins being cute together...

 Taco Tuesday, now on a Sunday!

engaged in intense Minecraft planning...

 Our last Sunday Dinner of the trip.  Crazy how fast these weeks have gone! I am always craving privacy by this point in the trip, the introvert in me asserting herself.  But I made sure to enjoy the crazy cacophony of family and friends tonight, knowing this is the last we'll be all together until the winter holidays...

 S'mores at Barb's house...

 Sunset on the dock.  All is right with the world.