It's All About the Lake

Here in the beautiful Northwest we are surrounded by lakes. Every summer I have grand plans of doing all sorts of great things but when it comes right down to it the only thing worth doing is going to the lake. So during the month of July we went to the lake and then we went to the lake some more. Even our stake 24th of July celebration was held at a lake.

Each summer we have our annual "week at the lake" where our family lake cabin is all ours. Oh man we love this week filled with friends and fun and an occasional near catastrophic event. This year was just lots of fun friends and no major events.

The week before our week at the lake we celebrated my birthday on a cold and rainy Tuesday night. Our family motto is "embrace the lake" so when it was pouring down rain as we pulled out of the driveway we weren't even phased. We philosophied about all the benefits of skiing in the rain--namely no boats and calm water. We sat at the boat launch for a good half hour waiting out the storm and finally we could stand it no longer. Jason and Chad entertained us by doing the wake skate together then I joined Jason in the water for this amazing kiss. Carolyn wowed us with her amazing skiing skills (she just learned to get up on one) and then the rest of us took advantage of the smooth water. We were definitely rewarded for our craziness of venturing out in the rain and had the lake all to ourselves with perfectly smooth and warm water.

A couple of days later we had our stake 24th of July celebration and had so much fun watching Emma jump off these cliffs. Jonah had done it earlier but I didn't get any pictures of him. It was an absolutely gorgeous night. I was cranky for most of the night since I had to be in charge of a fun run that only about 20 people ran but seeing Emma jump off the cliffs cheered me up and by the end of the night it was hard to drag ourselves away from this beautiful lake.

Finally--the week at the lake arrived. We had all been so excited about our week for the whole summer, literally counting down the days. In year's past we have had HOT weather, but this year we had a cool and windy week. Undaunted we still skiied everyday and embraced the lake. The Rolands came out on Sunday night with us and the boys and Chad entertained us with funny jokes and singing. Then on Monday we had the Taylor's join us and spent the day skiing and tubing with the kids. We made a pit stop at the Roland's house on the river and jumped off their new diving platform.

On Tuesday we had the Huber family come. We love these guys with their two big boys for Eli and Jonah and their two little Chinese girls. Their boys love to wakeboard so it's always fun to have them come.

As they were leaving the Lundberg's and the Hughes were arriving. We have been coming to the lake with these guys for at least ten summers. We put all the big boys in a tent on our neighbor's lawn which opened up lots of space in the cabin. The kids all got along great just like the artificial cousins that they are. Everyone was included and we were amazed once again that the kids love each other as much as the adults do. First thing, Tony tried to fix Jason's bad back so that he could ski. It's great to have a doctor as a friend. The kids ran around like maniacs--they were so excited to see each other.

We headed down the river each day with a ski boat and a wakeboard boat. Tony gave up his ski on Wednesday to drive the boys wakeboarding while Jason drove Betsy, Kelly and I skiing. Thanks to the amazing babysitters we were able to sneak away for dinner on Wednesday night. On Thursday we did more of the same and added in some afternoon tubing for the kids. The time went by so fast and we all agreed that once again this was our best time together. We barely had to do anything for the kids, they were all so entertained with each other. Sadly we said goodbye to Tony and Kelly and then to James and Betsy the next morning. After they all left we weren't quite sure what to do with our quiet group. We all rested up since it was windy and choppy on the lake and then things calmed down. I convinced everybody to head back on the boat for one last ski of the day and it was hard to get everyone excited about it. There were no boats on the lake and it was calm and beautiful. After everyone was done Jason decided to wakeskate. As soon as he was done we were rewarded with the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen. It was a full rainbow and later developed into a full double rainbow. My pictures don't do it justice but it was unbelievable. We were all in awe.

One of the best things about the lake is watching the kids learn new things. They have all tried hard to improve and we've had some great successes including Jonah learning to ski on one, Eli getting up on two after years of trying, and Anna, Lily and Jack all learning to ski this year.