On Wednesday, I took Miriam, William and the Isaacs to Lake Goodwin. We'd been there about 45 minutes when I turned from the beach to walk up to the bathroom. I soon spotted a little girl with red hair and a distinctive long sleeve hot pink and white swimsuit. Ellie! Sharon was watching all the little grandchildren: Seth, Ellie, Jenna, Savannah and Darcy, while my sisters-in-laws, Sheri and Lisa, were at their stake girls camps. Sharon and Aunt Viv had decided to take them to the lake to play. Great minds think alike! We had a fun day of water play, playground use and visiting. I like impromptu family parties. No planning, just fun!
our group.
Aunt Viv is taking the photo and Janice hadn't arrived yet
Big Isaac, Isaac, me, Jenna (back row), Darcy, Miriam, Sharon, Savannah, Ellie, William, Seth (pouting behind the hat)
Play day with the cousins
Sharon was trying to do something fun with the kids each day. On Thursday she brought the cousins over to play outside. It was a sunny day and there was lots of water play and bike riding. We'd just cleaned out and refilled the pool overnight. That meant the water was icy cold from the stream. A few of the cousins could stand the cold but most of them preferred the slip and slide. Isaac blew up one of our rafts and stuck it in the pool. Then the smaller cousins were able to enjoy the pool without getting absolutely frozen. As soon as Dode pulled in, Sharon gathered up the kids and took them back to her house. She felt bad for infringing on our dinner time. Dode said later he'd have enjoyed getting a chance to hang out with family.
Green Lake
On Friday, I took the kids down to Green Lake with my mom and Millie. We got there at 11:00, parked at the Bathhouse Theater, and walked over to the swimming area at East Beach by the playground and fitness center, about a 20 minute walk. My nephew Gabe had just learned to ride a bike so he rode his bike while Miriam kept up beside him, running in her high heeled church shoes. The kids got right in the water and started to play. They'd almost made it out to the floating dock when it was 12:00 and the life guards went on duty.
After they went on duty, no one was allowed out by the dock who couldn't pass the swim test, life jacket or not. So, they had to occupy themselves in the shallow part of the swim area.
Isaac dressed up for his trip to the lake. He found that straw hat last year floating in Lake Stevens while kneeboarding. He is a man with his own unique style.
Gabriel had a pretty good look going too!
A cheese company was at the park giving out free samples, so William and I wandered over to see what they had even though he can't eat dairy and I choose not to. They mentioned that they had swim tubes they were giving away each hour. In order to win, you had to be one of the first two people to arrive at their table on the hour. Miriam and Gabe wanted to head to the playground so they walked past us and were soon on their way with Boma. It was 15 minutes to 1:00 and William decided he really wanted a tube so he decided to just wait there. After a while they told him, "You're trying so hard, you can have a tube no matter what. You can go play and come back later and get a tube." Nope, William wanted to wait.
Soon, they let him sit in a tube while he was waiting. Right at 1:00 they gave him the tube and he was one happy child.
When I got too hot, I put on my swimsuit and got in the lake. Wrestling with three little ones didn't do very much to help me cool down.
chillin' on the beach
playing with William in the water
My mom offered to rent a ride on toy for the boys (Isaac and Isaac). She thought they'd pick stand up paddle boarding. Instead they chose a paddle boat that looked like a jet ski. They had a fun time during their one hour rental.
Millie and Isaac
We stayed at the lake until 4:00 and then headed back to the car. I'd promised the kids that this time we'd go to Mighty-O donuts and after a few wrong turns and circles, we found it! They use a donut robot to make their donuts and the kids enjoyed watching it work.
My mom bought everyone a donut. As we were eating our donuts about five minutes later someone came in and asked if it was happy hour yet. We learned that from 5-6:00 pm, all donuts are half price. If we would have known that, we could have waited five minutes and my mom could have saved some money! She let the kids return during happy hour to get seconds. I thought their fruit glazed donuts were really good. They had a perfect balance of sweet and tart in the glaze.
After enjoying our donuts, we headed for home. The traffic was not my friend. It took us almost two hours to get home, normally a drive of less than an hour. We had loaned out our big van so we were all stuffed into the minivan. It was an ugly hot day and I don't have air conditioning in that van. Only the front two windows roll down and the car acts like a green house. The traffic was stop and go, so we spent two hours crammed shoulder to shoulder in a green house with no wind. The kids were absolutely baked. William kept picking up his hair to try to get the sweat on his head to dry.
No comments:
Post a Comment