life at the lake.

A couple of weeks ago we headed to a little lake house for vacations with Chris's side of the family. It was a beautiful, peaceful little lake, and our days were filled with fishing, splashing, playing, and eating. The babies even slept decently well, once they actually got to sleep. On the final night they figured out how to blend the blinds back to look out the windows, and Quinn was NOT happy when we saw us outside enjoying a campfire. It was the last night, so I gave in, and she was rather pleasant until WAY past her bedtime. All in all, it was a fabulous time.

Carly has been talking about going fishing for months. MONTHS. She has been so excited. A few nights before we left I went to a girls night out, and when my friend picked me up the first thing that came out of Carly's mouth was "I'm going fishing soon!" I began to be a little worried, as fishing isn't necessary the most exciting thing in the world. I underestimated how things seem to work out for Carly. Papa bought her a Tinkerbell fishing pole, and the thing was magic. She caught a fish after only a few casts, a tiny silver thing. A few minutes later she caught a relatively big sunshine fish. And so it went. Carly caught 14 fish over the course of a week. She has no idea that real fishing usually means hours of sitting with nothing happening and not catching any fish. Like how the men did it every morning out in the row boat.

[Carly's second catch. You can practically hear her squeal through the photograph.]

[Manly men fishing in the early morning fog.]

We also enjoyed playing in the lake on our few warm days. Favorite activities included collecting snail shells, "catching" minnows, and covering our legs with mud (I'll give you one guess who enjoyed doing that one). One evening brother-in-law Christian, a former BYU swimmer, decided to swim across the lake. We followed him out in the rowboat, and it was pretty impressive to see him go all the way across and all the way back. Its slightly odd, being in this swimming family, as I would probably drown if I fell out of a boat without a life jacket. 

[lake life suited John. pretty sure he belongs in the wild.]

[snail shell fingers are so funny.]

[lake life suited this girl, too.]

We had a few rainy spells too, including most of the day that Chris had to head back to Lansing for work. We went to a cute little lunch place with lots of GF options, colorful ice cream, and balloons. We snuggled, climbed in cupboards, and played on various electronic devices. Our rainy lake day did nothing to dampen our party.

Other parts of the week included 

scenic runs, 

campfires, 

yummy food, 

frogs, 

and general cuteness. 

There tends to be a lot of general cuteness wherever we go.

In the noise and chaos of our everyday life, Chris and I are finding that this kind of vacation is right up our alley. Going to a quiet beautiful place and enjoying people we love. We enjoyed Oregon with my family a few years ago, we loved the UP with just the two of us, and now we have this trip to store in our memory banks. We are so blessed to have good families and to be surrounded by beautiful places. A big shout out to Pat and Lisa for making this fabulous week possible.

We headed back to Lansing, and that night had the opportunity to go to Detroit and attend the temple (and get Five Guys. yum!) with Jenny and Christian. Good folks, those two. Wish we were neighbors 7 years ago when we were newlyweds, too.

The next morning was a little river trail/park fun, then the family was off and we had a few days to settle down, clean up, and prepare for our next party. Isn't that the way life should always be? 

I think so.

[teaching Carly the art of the "Indian run"]