A Trip Down Memory Lane

One of my favorite summer memories was going to the lake in SC, to the lakehouse my grandparents bought  in 1970. My dad's parents had a house on the same lake, almost directly across from it, and when they were teenagers my dad would swim across the lake to see my Mom, sometimes staying for dinner. My dad's family had a really cool A-frame lakehouse that unfortunately was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Growing up we would come and stay for a week at a time, swimming, riding bikes on the dirt road, eating Grandma's salmon patties and grits for dinner. The furniture that came with the house (in 1970!), a lot of yellow and orange stuff, was a permanent fixture until last year when my dad started fixing it up. This is still what it looks like from the outside.   

The inside, however, has been drastically updated and looks great. 

Daddy is always looking out for me, and the night we were coming he decided that Mary Jo and I would need an a/c window unit to sleep. As a kid I don't think I even realized that we didn't have air conditioning, but as a nursing mama with kids needing naps the cool, quiet room was great. I think there was a baby sleeping in that room 19 hours a day, including David's and Mary Jo's naps. 

They have since paved the road, but we still made many loops around on bikes or on foot.

Thankfully one thing that hasn't changed much is the porch swing. David caught on quickly. 

Sadie and Eli spent hours each day in the lake, so naturally he got braver and braver. The neighbors have 14 grandchildren and a great rope swing that also drops in the lake, so we spent a lot of time with them. Sadie called them her friends. 

Once the boats and waves slowed down David was a much bigger fan of the lake. He does pretty well in his puddle jumper (the green thing), and, like with other things, is way too confident in his abilities. 

Steven had to leave Saturday evening, he was preaching in Charlotte on Sunday then heading back home to work. I gave the kids their only bath in 5 days in preparation for church the next morning, then we were offered a pontoon ride with my Dad's cousin who lives on the lake. Hence the pajamas under the life jackets. 

We didn't see many fireworks on the 4th, but did get to see some that night. The kids were in awe. 

I LOVE summertime, in case you can't tell.

We still have this old fold up cot at the lake that my brother ALWAYS got to sleep on growing up. I remember coveting it but I guess I just gave up on in it and always slept on the pullout couch. It just seemed fair (and safe) that our oldest should get the cot, I'm not sure she appreciated it as much as Byron. 

Eli got the pallet on the floor next to Sadie, and David is clearly excited about the day he graduates from a crib. Mama's just not ready for that quite yet. 

The kids and I spent five full days, and we weren't ready to leave. Our cell phones got terrible reception so I could legitimately ignore my emails, not pay any bills, and just enjoy my little family and my parents. One time I caught myself looking for cute guys on a boat that passed by our dock...one of my favorite past times as a teenager. I quickly reminded myself of my age, my skirt bathing suit, marital status, and 4 children swimming around me. It's funny how places can truly take you back! It was a sweet time then, and a sweet time now. Sadie quickly figured out that, unlike the pool, she could relieve herself while swimming. Once she exclaimed, "I just peed in the lake, that's the best part!" I think I'll end on that. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the work you've put in so we could revive the old lake house and enjoy it, a generation later! Looking forward to many more trips. 

Black eyes, birthdays, and bible conference.

I can't believe it's already July! Our June was kind of busy. After our Myrtle Beach trip we celebrated 2 birthdays in our family - David turned 2 on May 30th and Sadie turned 6 on June 3rd. The next day Eli went to a preschool day camp and I got that dreaded phone call an hour or so later. Providentially, I had decided to forego my errands for Mary Jo to have a morning nap and David and I were enjoying a quiet morning at home, much closer than I could have been to Eli. The sweet voice on the phone had some urgency in relaying the message "Eli's hurt his eye, he's ok, but you need to come." I scooped up a sleeping Mary Jo, picked up Eli (who of course had stopped crying until he saw me), left David at the preschool, and headed out. I didn't know where to take him so we ended up at the pediatrician's office, I was still hopeful for glue.

To make a long story short (sort of) we ended up having the gash repaired at the surgery center the next day by a pediatric eye doctor. All he did was fall on the playground and somehow the muscle above his eye was severed, go figure. All the jumping and climbing that kid does, this was inevitable, and I'm sure not the last time he'll have stitches. He looked so cute in his little "hospital gown." Thankfully it has healed really well and the only real meltdown was when he found out he couldn't swim for a week.  

The weekend after school got out we celebrated Sadie and David's birthdays at Bounce U, we had 24 kids show up and a handful of adults. It was a fun but exhuasting hour and 45 minutes, needless to say I didn't have time to get a lot of pictures. Here is Sadie with one of her classmates.

And this is as still as D would be for a picture. He had a blast. I can't believe my little guys is 2! He is such a joy and makes us laugh, quite often. His talking is really improving and it's so funny to have him repeat everything he hears. My favorite right now is when he sees Mary Jo he lights up and gets right in her face, saying "Hey baby!, hey baby!"  

The next week the kids and I drove to Charlotte for the week so Sadie and Eli could go to vacation bible school at my parent's church. My sweet cousins, Margaret and Charles, came for a visit and we all enjoyed it immensely (and possibly convinced them to only have 2 kids).  

Finally a week after Eli's "surgery" we celebrated by going to my parent's pool, the kids had a blast. Taking them swimming, without extra hands, is just stressful. But going with fun grandparents is great!

Thankfully, Mary Jo likes the water. She will probably see a lot of it this summer!

We had a great time in Charlotte, I got to spend a lot of time with my BFF from home, Julie, as her kids also went to bible school. Steven drove to Charlotte at the end of the week and the next morning we left for our annual Skyland Bible Conference, in Tennessee. It was a great week with Steven's family, lots of fun cousin time, some friend time, and great ministry. Here's my little rascals, sitting still for a brief moment in time. You would not believe the number of pictures I had to take in order to get ONE with them both looking at the camera and sitting still.

And my girls. I still can't believe I have 2 girls! They're quite fond of each other!

Sadie and David each took 2 naps on the way home, Skyland (for my kids, anyways), is not a restful place.
But a great one.

Even Mary Jo was pooped!

Since we've been home we have been trying to catch up around the house with little success. It's probably not a good time for this but I've been reading "100 Days of Real Food" blog and have started trying to cook more naturally and get rid of processed food. One night at the bible conference Eli had 4 bowls of Fruit Loops for dinner, it was kind of a wake up call that my kid's nutrition is lacking, to say the least. It will be SLOW changes, especially for Steven. Sweet man, but he is like the poster child on what you shouldn't eat. He and the kids have done well, at least trying each new thing. I also took the little 2 to the doctor for their check ups. David is 28 pounds, in the 50th percentile, while sweet little Mary Jo is 10-13, just the 1st percentile. She has doubled her weight, though! As her daddy says, "she comes from a long line of squirts". I'm thankful she's teeny. That being said, the clock is ticking on the next time she's going to eat so I'm going to shut this marathon blog down. I'll try to get back sooner. Night!