A whole l-otter love in the CLE

We've been enjoying our city this week! 

Wednesday we decided to enjoy the warm weather by visiting the new wildlife garden at the Natural History museum.  It was so cool.  A really beautiful, visually interesting space, great access to the animals... and the otters!  We couldn't get enough of the otters.

 Mainly this one, Lucy.  She was amazing, all zippy and happy and diving everywhere along the glass.  I think she was genuinely playing with the kids, following them as much as they were following her.  When they walked away, she slowed her swimming and popped her head up and actually looked around for them.

 Oh and did I mention we had the whole place to ourselves??  Wednesday night is THE time to experience this place...

We are trying to get used to this new, salmon-colored version of Steggie. Incidentally, Ivy can now climb all the way up and over his back on her own.  She's crazy-big.

The new  "Food" exhibit was pretty cool..  here is Ivy playing in the little play kitchen at the end, with a passion she never shows in her own play kitchen at home..

Thursday evening... a quiet at-home sort of night with two tired kids ( I think things are starting to get real at school and the hard work takes its toll by the tail end of the week...).  We did take a nice walk to the park where the kids contentedly played on swings and chatted and pretended to catch Pokemon (aka a rabbit, a squirrel and several glacial erratics).  In all of our busyness its easy to forget the joys of a simple evening together at home..

 Friday:  Never mind the simple joys of staying home... THIS night called for a trip to the lake.
We mobilized and by 5:30 kids had practiced piano, we had obtained Mama Santa's pizza, and we were on our way to our happy place.

It was the perfect choice.

Off-season beaches are my favorite.

(they are Ivy's favorite too...)

This is my " I win at life because I am on the beach at sunset on September 9th" face.

 We swam, did long-jumps, and played in the surf until the sun was down.  To add to the experience, it was the first night of Neocycle, so we did all of these things to the soundtrack of a live spinning class  followed by a couple of local bands.  
The water was warm, the sand was cool, the beach was populated by a scatter of contented families.
Just right.

Here are my children jumping on to my lap as the waves pushed us towards shore.  Not pictured:  the sunset light reflected on their faced and their twinkling, laughing eyes as we giggled together.  They are magical creatures, my children.  And the beach is a magical place.  We are all so happy there, every time...

 Today:  The start of fall soccer!  This is the year the soccer is clicking for Ivy.  She is fully invested in the game and starting to figure it out.  Even Jack was pleasantly surprise, telling her "Ivy, you are so good at everything!"  He got to be the assistant coach alongside Nat, for part of the game.  He also got tapped to be a goalie for a team of little girls that was short a player.  He was loving his "older wiser soccer player" role today. Sadly during his games he managed to overheat himself and have a few emotional moments.  But, played his heart out and played well as always... (here's hoping for some cooler weather for the rest of the season!)

 Today was also the day of Becca's engagement party! (Which we had the honor of hosting..) So, things were  a little busy around our house.

Everything came off swimmingly.  Becca (ably assisted by her friend Molly, and Joe of course!) did a great job coordinating decorations and food and our messy, storm damaged yard managed to look pretty nice for the afternoon,

I had a great time getting to know some of Becca's friends and "future-family," and catching up on some of our family friends who I haven't seen in far too long.  The chickens and the treehouse were a hit, and 30 people were well fed and happy in our yard.  Parties... so much work, so worth it.

A few moments from the "after-party"-- a foretaste of events to come in June 2018!

Lots of love from our little corner of the world, to yours.

The Lake for Labor Day

Give us a 3 day weekend, and we are likely to run away to the Lake.

We've just returned home from the most delightful two-day respite, a total escape from the real world in our family's favorite place.

I am so grateful for 3 day weekends.  And for the weather that allowed us to enjoy this one so fully...

A quick review of the Final Farley's visit for the year...

We left at 5:00 Friday night and had a quick, uneventful drive and a lovely restful night in the cool weather at the Point.  

Woke Saturday to some pretty intense fog.  Apparently this lake-fog is quite normal this time of year, a heavy cloud of white resting directly over the water.  We could hardly see past the end of the docks from the cottage but by the time I reached the end of the Point road on my morning run, I could see evidence of what was to be a brilliantly sunny day...

Farley's:  home to all spiders in the universe. Also, fog plus sunlight transforms webs into art. 

The glassy calm lake begged us to go for a boat ride.  Sadly, the engine on the Morehouse boat continued its streak of unreliability, and wouldn't start for us.  So, time on the docks and then a jaunt in the canoe had to suffice...

Spent the rest of the morning in Aurora, enjoying the swing and finding treasures in the attic...

Then, off the adorable Aurora Farmer's Market to get fireman's grilled chicken for supper...

... and zuchini and tomatoes and apples and corn and a raspberry turnover because I can't be stopped at Farmer's Markets..

Ivy: I can carry the corn myself, Daddy!

The wind had come up by the time we returned to the point so Nat took the kids out sailing.

This is Jack's post-sailing face...

Corydon wanted to go too...

Quiet sitting around time ensued... ( no pictures but trust me when I say it was pretty nice to sit around in the shade reading while my kids played with cousins....)

Then-- Nat and Randy disappeared to the docks and lo!  A working boat!  And a quick afternoon ride that was worth the price of admission...

Both kids got to drive, twice.  This one is getting pretty confident, isn't he?  We hit a lot of boat wakes while we were out, and Jack took us over a set that bounced the whole boat into the air.  Not fazed.  What a big kid.

Late afternoon at the cottage:  cousins everywhere!

It never ceases to amaze me how this tiny space can absorb so much activity...

Meanwhile, outside:  Afternoon drinks and conversation with the assembled family...

Then, a scrumptious dinner, complete with the best corn in the universe.  Nothing like NY state sweet corn, those tender kernels popping in your mouth.... a vegetable that BOTH of my kids will willingly eat!  Huzzah!

After dinner, a gymnastics show by Izzy and Ivy, at the playground.  Ivy is becoming quite the daredevil on the rings and hanging bars, flipping upside down, hanging by her knees.  She and Izzy called this the "olympics"...

 Sunday:  Mostly not pictured because  we were took busy enjoying.  Enjoying a leisurely morning (Nat at Long Point, kids and I eating peach pancakes at home -- oh how I love peach pancakes!)... following by more leisure time reading and swimming and kayaking and canoeing to Eagle Cove and cleaning off the raft and talking with family and neighbors.  The kids were occupied with their cousins ALLLL day-- I think I spent about 12 minutes with Ivy the entire time.  She moved in to the big cottage where she and Izzy played blissfully with Littlest Pet Shop figurines for the duration.  Jack and Alex alternately obsessed over video games and played idyllically at the playground.  I finished an entire novel and had time for crochet, too.  It was amazing.

Evening found our front lawn the site of the informal Labor Day cocktail hour, with just about all of the remaining Point residents gathered for drinks and snacks and the world's best deviled eggs.

Only at Farley's do you see a tray of deviled eggs done up like this.

Then a second amazing dinner with MORE amazing corn...\
And a calm, quiet sunset to usher out the day.

 The lake was so smooth we decided to steal the boat out for a 5 minute ride, sketchy mother be damned.
So glad we did.  The lake at sunset is magical, and even more so when you are ON the water, the wind and sun mingling together into the pure, distilled essence of summer.

Bottling this up for keeps.

 Quiet socializing by candlelight...

 ... snuggling in to a nighttime cottage... (my happy place!  Can you get any more beautiful than this room??)

Today-- a 12 mile run through Aurora and back, a perfect short swim with Nat, cleaning our cottage til it glowed as the children played a little more with cousins, and leisurely coffee in the side yard-- all in time to get to lunch at McGee by noon.  Farley's has a special relationship with time, I think.

It was a picture perfect weekend -- couldn't have designed a better stay at the Point, except maybe to make it 100 times longer..


Til next year, Lake.  Thanks for helping us to usher out summertime in style.