wondrous weekend #5: lake gaston

you'd think that summer, without any kind of professional work , would give me time aplenty to keep this blog updated.  but i honestly think i have less free time than i do during the school year.  most evenings i'm falling into bed in a tired heap, after driving my charges all over tarnation, playing tennis, swimming at the pool, managing playdates, etc.  i love our carefree, fun-filled days of summer ... but had sort of forgotten how exhausting they can be.

so here are pictures from our trip to lake gaston from two weeks ago.  we got an invitation to join good friends at their lake house -- and what a treat!  the kids had never been to a lake house before, or boated like lake people do.  it was an absolutely phenomenal day, from start to finish.

liam and his BFF preston

kid-sized kayaks!  super fun.  must look into for the beach ...

the little sisters, campbell and susanna

for a summary of how liam felt about the day, one needs to look no further than the sheer exhilaration on his face in this photo

don't let this picture fool you.  susanna was TERRIFIED when we first started on the tube -- clutching the handles in a death grip, crying, screaming at me that she wanted nothing to do with it.  and then, a minute later, she turned to me and said it was the most fun thing she'd ever done in her life.  she proceeded to go back out two more times.  rest assured i will tuck this experience in my back pocket, so when the next time occurs that she's reticent to try something new, i'll only need to say, "remember tubing at lake gaston?"

kneeboarding was a surprising hit for liam.  it only took him a few tries before figuring out how to get up (and stay up)

and a good time was had by all