Weekend Frenzy

Summertime is the time that we go to the lake every weekend. We have been blessed with two places to enjoy the MN summer weather. Much of the month of May, June and July we were gone every weekend at the lake. It is interesting packing and getting ready for going away for the weekend. I'd like to say there is a method to my madness of packing, but there isn't. Between the laundry, food preparations and packing it is very consuming. I sometimes start packing clothes on Wednesday and I often just leave the clean clothes in the suitcases for the next weekend and just fill as I get laundry done.  Steve says I over pack but I don't think there is such a thing to under pack with 4 kids.  I've gotten really good though by the end of summer!  Thank goodness we haven't forgotten anything major. Well, the pack and play one time, which made the stay quite interesting...for Mommy.
Joseph is a die hard fisherman. I wonder where he got that from...;) He has so much patience, he really does enjoy it. His favorite thing to do right now at my Mom and Dad's lake place (we refer to this as "the lake") is to take the paddle boat out by himself (bonus if someone else wants to go out with him to fish) and fish in the bay. His favorite thing to do at Steve's parents place (we refer to this as "the cabin") is swimming around with his scuba mask and saining for minnows.
Grace loves to be at both places. She is usually on Mimi or Grandmas trail, following them wherever they go, asking for treats or asking them to do something. :) She loves to come up with big ideas like "special times", tea parties, movies, putting on make up. She usually has them wrapped them around her finger...:) She has deemed herself the "Crappie Queen" and likes to fish when she wants to fish. 
Olivia loves each place also. She is such a go with the flow little girl. She fished this last weekend with Daddy for much of the day which was a first. She managed to dump a bag of Chex mix in the boat and spill a bag of puff corn but all in all had fun playing with the little sunfish in the live well. Her new phrase this week has been, "I go on floating dock?" She randomly says it which makes it even funnier. We all were talking about our days at the supper table and she just blurted out, "I go on floating dock?" Steve just replied, "wow, that was random!" lol Grandpa made a floating dock for the kids to jump off of at the cabin, so she is obviously eager to try it out again!
Emily likes going to the lake places, she has been a good baby at each place. She spent much of the summer with Mommy or Daddy only though, she was really not liking anyone else to hold her. It took until the end of July for her to finally let Grandma hold her. When she finally went to her willingly, I quickly slipped away and let her have her time. I always say you would think with the fourth one that she would just go to anyone being in the busyness of things, but oh no, only Mommy and Daddy usually.  You just can change or make kids into something you want to sometimes no matter how hard you try. I always say I'm going to remind her when she's 16 that she would not go to anyone, she just wanted MOMMY!!! :)

This weekend was the last time we were going to be going to the lake for the year. It was very nice weather, kind of breezy but beautiful.  It's so much fun to see the kids enjoy themselves up there as I did when I was a kid. There is so much water up there I've never seen the water so high in August. Livy couldn't resist herself in the puddles and slipped and fell in the mud covering the back of herself in mud, wet grass and wet clover.  Her mullet was full of yucky stuff.  I had to give her a famous "trucker shower" as Daddy calls it. We actually have a warm shower on the outside of the trailer so I just showered her outside.  It was kind of nice not having to get the inside all muddy and struggling to have the two year old not run around on the carpet.  She loved it and Grace was so enticed by it all I had to give her one too! On Friday night Mars got the closest to the Moon it has been in however many years and it will never happen again in any of our lifetimes. (I know I didn't get the facts straight, I can just hear my Dad correcting me out loud if he is reading this! Sorry Dad!;)) Of course I took a picture of it...see above right photo...:) I am my Grandma's granddaughter, we still have photos of the television of Norman Schwarzkopf being interviewed and I think some Twins players....I've been known to take photos of the happenings on t.v. too...:)