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.

Back for more...

Farley's is treating us well so far.

 We're back at home in the little cottage, settling in for our two week stay.  The point has been packed this holiday weekend, in that so good to see you, let's stand in the road and chat sort of way.  It's been long enough now that I am finally feeling more at ease with this, slipping more comfortably into the Farley's small talk.  I am genuinely happy to see these neighbors and friends, this little summer family.  We wander about in our swimsuits, we congregate at picnic tables, we watch the children and sip our coffee or beer.  We eat donuts.  Life is easy and good and we don't have a lick of privacy and while I know this will wear on me, for this weekend at least, it feels right.

The full complement of cousins has been around this weekend, a luxury we've been sure to enjoy as it won't last for too long this trip.  Our kids have been entertained and worn out well by their wonderful friends. Jack in particular is high on the cousin-time-- and withdrawl hits him each time they go in to the house for a bit.  "I'll just wait here for Sarah....," is an oft-whined phrase about the cottage this weekend.  The flip side to the moping?  Watching my boy play, deeply engrossed in a Playmobil drama, for hours; seeing him giggle and run off to play a game with the group; hearing him tell his cousins what he can do, what he loves, so confident and fully present with them.  I love these relationships he is building and I just want to freeze and bottle these moments up, they make my heart so happy.

Ivy, too, is loving the cousins. David in particular.  While sunshine girl does not take their absence to heart in the same way as her brother (thank the lord!) she does light up when they are around, and truly goes moon-eyed for David, who for his part tolerates her hugs and nose bopping with a slightly bemused smile.

Tonight our usual troupe was joined by Nat's cousin Ashley and her family, bringing the total cousins-in-residence to 13 and the dinner total to 29.

It was grand.

The children ran and played with water balloons and set off bottle rockets with Nat and we got rained on twice and dinner was delicious and the evening lingered and lingered and the kids didn't get to bed til ten.  And that is OK.

Ivy and Riley (Ashley's 4 year old daughter) became fast friends this evening, pushing each other in the porch swing, sharing a chair to eat their ice cream, and finally being "mermaids" together when all the children spontaneously went for a sunset swim.  The two girls were happy to hop in the shallows in their undies and regaled us with tales of what mermaids eat (Riley insisted seaweed, Ivy disagreed and suggested lipstick) and what they are named (all, apparently, share one name.  Ariel.  Ivy is the Ariel with red hair and a red body while Riley has red hair and a pink body, so there you go).  

Ivy appeared to pick up her feet and paddle a little tonight, and was so very proud of herself for swimming.  She has taken to the lake like a fish this trip, truly.  In fact the other day she spent all her swimming time pretending to be a "sunshine fish" with her two hands carefully in front of her like little flippers.  She has been, as ever, a laugh riot.  Perhaps even more than normal, its hard to tell.  She's been a dynamo, a dervish, a flirt.  We can't keep clothes on her or keep track of where she is, little miss independent.  Earlier today she did not want to go to the store with me.  I asked her what I should do with her instead, and she answered (as she sashayed away from me on the dock, hands at a jaunty angle from her hips) "You can just leave me here, I don't care...!"   She is the only child I know who can make an attitude like that, delightful.   Oh we are in for it with this girl...

Here are a few more pictures for you... swimming, boat rides, sunsets.  You know, just the usual Farley's stuff.  Wish you were here...

After bottle rockets we all ran down to watch the sunset.  It was worth it.

Moments after this photo was taken, the sun would be down and all these children would be in the water.  The sort of magic that makes keeping them up past bedtime so very very worth it...

Bottle rockets.  "Remember kids, uncle Nat says...."

Waiting anxiously for the fireworks last night...

After our boat ride yesterday morning we plopped the kids overboard to swim with Randy and Hannah, and went out for more boat ride.  Man, I love this place. 

This one went to the park like this.  Somehow, she manages  to make an impression everywhere she goes...

Ivy and Reese, nieghbor Barb's granddaughter who is 6 days older than Ive.   Sadly they've gone home already... but Ivy and Reese will get up to many adventures in summers to come, I can tell...

Boat girl.  Sorry for the dearth of photos of the boy.  He's either been mopey or he's disappeared playing; either way there haven't been as many photo ops for him these past few days...

They just loved those fireworks...

For da July!

That's what Ivy was chanting earlier as she danced around on the porch pretending to use an American flag for a "brella".   Jack was in  our bed at 7:15 this morning exclaiming the same.  The kids are serious about the 4th of July.  

And can you blame them?

 
 Parades and rocket car rides and children running barefoot in the streets with squirt guns all afternoon...  This neighborhood just oozes wholesomeness on holidays and today we did a great job soaking it all up, I must say.

 The day began and ended with some spotty rain but had a whole lot of perfect in the middle,with some breezes that were a welcome change from last year's heat. We had brunch with the neighbors, the kids had their faces enthusiastically painted by a sweet 8 year old, we racked up a total of three rides on the rocket car, and the whole family marched in the parade. This was the year for Jack-- off he went, riding confidently at the head of the parade, carefully pacing himself to stay just behind the maypoles... Then, chatting with friends and neighbors as the kids played in pools, decorated cupcakes, and ran with the pack of kids.  Jack was in his element, joining with some other young boys to chase a few very tolerant high schoolers around with squirt guns.  We hardly saw him for an hour.  

We capped off the day with a cookout with gram and Bec and sparklers in the yard.  

Tomorrow, off to Farley's.

Tonight-- reveling in the glow of loving, really loving, where we live. 

 
 

 
 

 

 By the way, Nat and I have been married for 7 (busy, wonderful, changing, exhausting, rich, amazing) years.  We celebrated on Monday with a sumptuous dinner out at the Greenhouse Tavern, then the free orchestra concert and fireworks downtown.  It is good to remember just hour much I love spending time with this man. We had so much fun just walking and talking and exploring downtown together. I am so lucky.