Back to The Lake

We had our annual vacation week up at the lake this past week. Except this year, we stretched it to 10 days. Unfortunately it was without Meagan. I keep telling her that her new employer won’t mind if she goes into the hole with her vacation time, but she won’t listen to me. However, we didn’t lack for company. Over the course of those 10 days, there were 17 people in the house. And a dog.

Of the 17, six were friends of the kids. The first three were quiet. The second three were … entertaining. All of them seemed to have a lot of fun, which made it fun for us to have them there.

We spent time:

• Kayaking – After carefully clearing out all visible signs of spiders for the girls.
• Playing cards – Bridge and Hand and Foot.
• Water Skiing – Each year I go once to say I did it.  This year I went twice.
• Swimming – Despite the fact that Heather has an unnatural fear that the fish are going to bite her toes.
• Sea Doing – Two pairs of expensive sun glasses have been added to the collection at the bottom of the lake after having jumped a wave and going 25 feet into the air.
• Cruising – I swear we are going to lose the dog overboard on one of these trips.
• Watching the Sox – Though not as much as in past years since it is not quite as worth it when they are below .500.
• Viewing fireworks on the 5th due to Arthur.
• Reading – The Cukoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a J.K. Rowling).
• Fishing – One very small one.
• Kan Jamming – Dave and I beat the two soccer stars. Twice. After Heather taught me how to throw a frisbee.
• Tubing – Including the poor dog.
• Jogging around Black Cat.
• Walking to the bridge.
• Renting (actually purchasing) a bad movie – Heaven is for Real – with Phil’s money.
• Building camp fires.
• Eating pie, ice cream, and s’mores.
• Napping outside.
• Drinking sangria and other alcoholic beverages.
• Taking pictures of girls in bikinis jumping off the boat.
• Dealing with boat issues – Just minor ones this year. No towing involved.
• Listening to kitty stories – My brother Matt and his fiancé are new parents.

And of course, I needed to feel useful. So I painted the outdoor shower. And solved some IT issues.

With this post and my past posts, I don’t mean to give the false impression that this great, big family is always happy and completely functional. We’ve had our moments. However, this past week, those moments did not go beyond the annoyance level. Here are some examples:

• My brother Dave got annoyed with the dog. I can’t blame him. The dog is annoying. You can’t leave anything resembling food unattended and within her reach. That includes the contents of bathroom trash cans.
• I got annoyed with my brother Dave for the way he drives the boat. Though I managed to keep my mouth shut so things did not escalate beyond the annoyance level.
• My mother and I got annoyed with each other when she was trying to teach me how to play bridge. I get annoyed with anyone trying to teach me anything, let alone my mother.
• Phil got annoyed with the mess. And with 17 people, there is quite a mess. The dishwasher needed to be unloaded about 102 times. He made at least 3 trips to the dump, and most of that was for the half empty beverage bottles and cans that were left hanging around all over the place. And even though he insists it is possible, we did not once succeed in cooking dinner using just one pot.  
• My brother Matt overlapped with us for just one full day, so he didn’t have time to get annoyed with us. Though I did see flashes on his face where he might have come close. The flashes of annoyance may have been because the overlap occurred when our entertaining guests were present.