Weekend at the Lake

This past weekend we were all able to spend some time up at the lake.  My parents have a small place on the lake and we love to go up there in the summer.  Our Firefighter nicknamed it "The Villa".  We decided to take the boys up there for a long weekend since school is starting this week.  Our Firefighter was going to be on duty at the fire station so I took the boys down a day early and he was able to join us for a couple of days inbetween his shifts.  We had a nice long weekend and enjoyed some great family time.

We took the boys for ice-cream at one of our favorite ice-cream places, The Patio, and the boys actually both stood for this picture for me.

I try to take their picture here each year but it does not always happen.  Last year G would stand there for me with my nieces but M would not.  This year both boys stood there for me!  The Patio also makes fantastic donuts so we had to buy a couple of those to share too.

M really likes the donuts and I have to admit that mommy really likes them too!  It is a little hard to see but M is holding a piece of donut in this picture.

After we finished with our ice-cream snack the boys wanted to go and play shuffleboard.  Now, while they do enjoy shuffleboard, we do not actually play it and follow the rules.  I have no idea how to play the game.  When my Mother is there with us we try to play a game with the boys because she knows how to keep score.  However, since she was not there at that moment we just checked out the equipment, went to our assigned court and practiced.  I have to admit that the boys are getting pretty good at this game.  G is able to push the puck all the way to the other side and keep it on the court.  I was helping M and by the time that we were done he was even doing real well too.

When we were done playing shuffleboard we headed to the park.  We still had a little bit of time before our Firefighter was going to be able to join us.

M was enjoying these new rockers that had just been added to the park.  G made a friend and really enjoyed playing on the jungle gym.  When we were done we headed back to The Villa to meet up with our Firefighter.

The next day the lake was pretty flat so our Firefighter took us out for a morning boat ride.

The boys really enjoyed the boat ride.  I enjoyed it because the lake was flat.  I really don't like bumpy boat rides.  Of course, a day at the lake would not be complete without a trip to the ice-cream store!  This time my Firefighter and I went out for an ice-cream date night and my parents stayed with the boys after we put them to bed.

Unfortunately, the next day was a shift day again so we had to bid our Firefighter good-bye while he headed back to the station.  That is always so hard to do because we miss him when he cannot be with us, especially when we are having fun at the lake.

I spent a relaxing day at The Villa with the boys and my parents before we all headed home.  The boys had to get in a little swimming in the pool before we left though.

The alligator float was way too big for the little pool but the boys did not care.  They just pretended to ride it around on the grass.  When it was time to clean up we took buckets and used the pool water to water the flowers.  When the pool was mostly emptied of the water I took one of the water squirters and started squirting the boys.  They got so excited when I did that they went and grabbed their squirters and I let them squirt me too.  Needless to say that we were all soaked by the time we were done.  We topped off the night with some dinner, baths for the boys and a car ride home where the boys promptly fell asleep in their car seats.  Once they were asleep I turned off their Bible School CD and put in one of  my CDs.  The Bible School CD is fun but it is not that long so it repeats a lot during the ride to the lake and they will listen to it for the entire car ride.  I think that I actually dream about those songs at night!  So, when they were asleep this mommy changed the CD to my music.

By the time we got home and got the car unloaded we were exhausted!  We had a great weekend and some great family time together too.  There were a few meltdowns which is to be expected with a 3 and 4 year old but the good times are what we remember!