Lake Day {Old Friends and New}

Did I ever tell you it rained -- it seems-- the LAST MONTH OF SUMMER?!?  Pool days came to an abrupt halt.  No more packing coolers.  No more sunscreen applications.  No more lazy days of chatting in the sun {or shade - depending on who you are} with friends.  It was sad.  A “lake day” had been promised to Julia with a few old friends and new who would be joining her at Paschal the first day of school but the days and days of rain seemed to be determined to snuff this fun day out.  On the day of as I was debating on whether or not to cancel it, all it took was one boy in the background of the conversation I was having with his mom saying, “Let’s just try it!”.  No more questions-- if he was game, I was game.  After a handful of optimistic texts to the other parents, I heated up the Hawaiian Roll sandwiches, loaded the cooler with fun cans and bottles, layered THREE batches of Rice Krispie treats in one container, the biggest bag of popcorn I’d ever seen in my life and off we went.  As I was heading out the door, I noticed the wood pile and thought of wet kids and evening time and threw a few pieces of wood in the back of the car.  And in case you were wondering if I am crazy or delusional, we had a VERY strange August.  Very cool. Very wet.

Kids, lake, a dock, a football, no worries of sunburn.  Perfect.

How many teenagers can you fit on a ski boat?

 {They didn’t all go at once, of course. But they would have tried!}

Always a little work to get a group shot.

As the afternoon turned to early evening, the sky just kept getting more dreamy.

Audrey was the ONLY one to try wake boarding and make it up several times.  Hudson was a veteran- got up the first time-- but I applaud the boys for trying.  Really hard.

Tommy, Audrey’s dad, started the fire - WITHOUT lighter fluid- {show off} while Jeff slung the kids around on the tube.  They found sticks so they could heat their sandwiches.

We lit sky lanterns at the end which-- I don’t care how may times you’ve done them- they are just cool.  And so pretty to watch.  They floated the right way-- thank goodness-- AWAY from the trees.  But we were able to watch them until they were just specks.  

The sky at this point was just incredible-- as you see in the following picture but, here, you can see the reds and pinks reflecting onto them as they followed their lanterns.

I know.  Amazing.  This is completely unedited taken on the phone. It just looked like this.  I noticed a couple of the kids-- boys, mind you-- running back to snap a picture too.  Gotta love a kid who appreciates a sunset. ; )

We had a GREAT time with these kids.  We just wanted to give Julia a few more friendly faces to recognize as she headed to a brand new school.  I was completely encouraged- and impressed- to meet them because each of them were super polite and very helpful.  And so very grateful.  That always gets a momma’s heart.  We’ll load this crew up anytime they want to go.