Lake Bliss

Thursday afternoon, I did something somewhat spontaneous...for me anyway. My brother sent me a message. He was vacationing at a nearby lake. Did I want to come with the kids?

After I made sure he wasn't intoxicated when he sent that message, I decided to take him up on it. Why not? We all needed to hit the restart button and getting out of our usual environment seemed as good a way as any. 

I packed a bag and we headed to the store to purchase some floats, essential equipment for lake dwelling. We stopped by Happy Hour (ahem, at Sonic of course) and got out of town by 4:15 or so. By 6 we were all happily floating in the lake. We splashed and swam and jumped off the dock. We stayed in the perfectly warm water until we saw the moon rise and smelled the sausage dogs my brother was grilling. 

The next morning we had a healthy and hearty breakfast. We were suncreened and in the water by around 10 and other than a lunch break, that is where we stayed until oh, around 7:30 or so. Seriously, raft tag, diving and jumping contests, water ball, chasing floats all over the place and an open water swim of 1500 meters for me and 1000 meters for Dawson (that kid can do endurance). It was as near a perfect day as I could hope for. 

My brother had to leave early but said, "Why don't you guys go ahead and stay?" Nelson was out of town for the day so...we did. We made dinner out of every single leftover in the place. Apparently swimming all day induces intense hunger. 

After packing up the next morning, I walked around the place taking photos of everything, with a firm resolve that come what may, we are going to get one of these things. One hour and fifteen minutes from home, 5 minutes from the local town, and endless opportunities to wear out the kids in a totally wonderful way. 

It was just what we needed to get us right back on track.