Lake Life, 2016

How our time here has flown this year!  We have a just a few days left of our lake stay.  Even though we still have road trip and a good month of vacation left, it feels a little like summer is ending.

Vacation this year-- it has been SO good.  So...vacation-ey.  We have just sunk in to the relaxation, the routine of boating and swimming and sitting in the lake breezes.   The relaxation has been compounded  by the fact that our parenting duties have been rather minimal.  This summer our children have been truly Farley's free-range kids, disappearing for large portions of the day to other cottages, the park, the lake... leaving us to sit and chat with family and neighbors and one another-- or ignore each other and get some schoolwork done... or ignore the schoolwork and read instead.  Jack is an independent swimmer, easily passing his "raft test" and swimming with cousins and friends for hours, diving beautifully (though he noted to his cousins, "I'm not consistent yet with my perfect dives..." ) -- when he is not playing Singing Monsters and Castle Clash on his Kindle, that is.  Ivy has become part of an inseparable trio with next door neighbor Reese and cousin Izzy, and these three 6 year olds are ready to take on the world.  Or at least, play a LOT of littlest pet shop, swing and climb at the park, and mercilessly shadow the troupe of "big girls" (a cadre of pre-teens who are remarkably patient with the little ones).  She has been included on numerous boat rides with Barb and the Koons and she is confident jumping off a boat to swim in the middle of the lake.  Her favorite spot to ride in the fast boats-- right in the front of the bow, leaning forward into the wind.  My girl.  The kids are barefoot ALL the time and in bathing suits about 90% of the time and they are long and lean and tan and blonde and so independent.  I always feel like they grow up in triple time while we are here.

Lake time....  The water this year is warm and wonderful...

Our boat dog.

The kids had SO much fun with this sunk canoe.  The old canoe has never been so clean. 

Ivy, heading out for a ride with Barb and her family.  This was the day that Nat and I decided to take the Morehouse boat out to meet them in the middle, and the engine died and Barb had to tow us home.  So dignified.  Two days of soul- searching followed-- should we look for a new motor?  A whole new boat??-- before Claire's boat guy offered to come take a look at the engine, fixed two pieces of hose and voila!  Boat is back on the lake! 

We thoroughly enjoyed sharing a few days at the lake with Jamison and Casey.  Looking forward to visiting them in San Francisco sometime in the near future. ...

Jack, diving, at sunset.  The lake does "end of the day" so very well. We are enjoying sunset swims this year...

Ivy is learning to do cannonballs.  She tried to shout "cannonball!" as she jumped and got out "canonb...!" before hitting the water. She is the cutest.

These two mammals are a wonderful, relaxing presence in the cottage.  Bunny is enjoying cottage life immensely.  He has taken to doing parcourt and jumping onto the dining table  from the top of a rocking chair (mid-rock) on the porch.  He also sits in front of the fans with his molting fur waving in the wind. Corydon has been remarkably calm, thanks to some combination of anxiety meds, tons of swimming, and being twelve.  She's such a good dog.  Needs a little help jumping into the boat this year but swims out to the raft with ease, thank you very much.

 We have been fully surrounded by family these two weeks and we are loving it.  Randy and his family have been staying in the big cottage for the duration of our stay and while we haven't spent a ton of time together, it has been nice to be able to take their presence for granted.  Stephanie and Emily and their families have been around almost every evening as well, and between that and mornings at swim lessons, Jack and Ivy have gotten lots of quality time with their second cousins, too.

Sand creations at swim lessons.  

Here is Ivy with Pema, her "big girl crush."  Pema is such a sweet girl and very patient with Ivy's intense love.

 A picnic at Long Point.  Officially the windiest picnic ever (seriously-- we couldn't let go of our plates, potato chips were blowing away, and cups of beer were blown over, twice!) it was nonetheless a lovely evening at the park...

Our little fish, in search of the "big waves" at the end of the point...

 S'mores at Barb's cottage to say goodbye to her children.  Luckily for Ivy, granddaughter Reese is staying for the summer...

 Waterfall Monday!  We dragged our little troupe up and down 4 miles worth of stairs to visit some of the amazing gorges and waterfalls in the Ithaca area.  The photos from this day are deserving of their own post, or perhaps their own photobook, but here are a few highlights...

 Evenings on the lake.  Did I mention sunset around here?

We've been canoeing and kayaking over to "Eagle Cove" a lot, where there are at least 2 juvenile and 1 adult bald eagle in residence.  We've gotten glimpses but few photos.  It makes a lovely destination, at any rate.

Ivy sought out her uncle Randy the other night and they spent some quality time fishing off the dock and out in the boat.  No fish, but some wonderful moments for our girl...

Watching a storm roll in from big cottage porch on Wednesday.  We could've used more rain than we got..

Jack has played soccer, briefly, with the Union Springs Soccer club.  Wednesday was his  first, and final game.  He had a blast playing with his cousin Alex.  Those two are great together.
 

Another thing that should be noted-- the new couch?  Worth every penny.  We are sleeping SO well on the pull out mattress, and it is nice to not be squeezing 3 people into the tiny bedroom.  Now we have room to leave our clothes laying ALL over the floor in there.  yay!


Well, off to enjoy our antepenultimate day at the lake...

More to come!