As promised, I have WAY too many pictures to share from our trip to the lake yesterday! Like an obscene amount. I may whittle them down as I go, but I’m not promising anything 🙂 I love a good photo post, and I think at least a handful of others do, too, so here goes!
Jerilee and Brady sat in the front, and I sat in the first row of seats. With the open console area, it felt very much like we were just all sitting beside each other 🙂 It was a great set up. Plus, I had these two monkeys beside me the whole time.
They were cute, and patient as we drove the 2.5 ish hours to the lake. Once we arrived, we unloaded the kids into the parking lot and grabbed the beach stuff. Dekker and Laela were amped!
I love when they hold hands <3 We didn’t ask them to or anything. They were just ready to go!
Once we set up our blankets and such, the sand castling begun!
Yup, that’s sand in his teeth. He had to try it, I suppose. Just the once.
Bubbles also came out, because whats the beach without bubbles?
We managed to convince a couple of the kids to wade into the water but it was pretty frigid, haha!
Our beach has always had a pretty great little play structure on it, but in the last few years, its put up another one that is for older kids, and its SO much fun! They’ve also gotten baby swings, teeter totters, and all kinds of other things. The kids were THRILLED with the playground. Its definitely where we spent the most time.
The playground was feeling a bit crazy with a handful of school groups on it as well, so we decided to break for lunch. We were heading back to the van to get the snacks we’d brought, and Dekker suggested we picnic on some grass in the parking lot rather than hunting for a picnic table. It was completely quiet and seemed like a good idea 🙂 So we plunked down on a grassy little hill in the parking lot and ate out snacks.
I tried to get a good picture of my best girls and best boys. One picture turned out and the other didn’t, even after MANY tries. Care to wager some guesses?
No lie, this was the very best one I got. Aaaaanyway…
As the kids tummies got full, so did their energy levels. They raced back and forth across the grass along the parking lot while the rest of us sat and chatted and fed Solly a bit more.
Poor baby was pretty wiped out by this point in the day.
We decided to give him the best chance at a nap, so I strapped him into the ergo (which he only tolerates now if he’s tired enough to sleep) and we walked around the little town, showing the kids the shops and restaurants and little places to hike a bit. They loved it 🙂
After we did a solid lap around town, we headed back to the playground so the big kids could play a little bit longer while Solly slept. He woke up halfway through and joined the kids on the playground 🙂 It was a good wrap up to a wonderful lake day!
Dekker was SO good at getting on and off the seesaw carefully so not to drop Laela.
Look at his happy face!!! <3 He LOVED the swings!
And this was one of my favorite things! Teeter totters are tricky when the people on them are the exact same size!! Laela and Rowan would level out so easily if they didn’t really kick off. Ro didn’t have quite enough strength for it. He’d kick and kick and they’re just float there 🙂 It was hilarious.
This was our last stop before we decided to head out for the day. We were planning on taking them to one of the restaurants for supper but I didn’t think ahead, and the one we wanted to hit was closed still. But really, it would’ve been a bit of a wait, and the kids were quite overtired at this point. No one had melted down, but I knew it wasn’t far off. The promise of McDonalds for supper made them happy, and we left the lake without any devastation.
The drive to supper was VERY quiet.
Not flawlessly quiet, though. I fed the littlest monkey Cheerios and he stayed quiet 🙂
Everyone had a GOOD long sleep, but at least some of them were still pretty bushed by the time we stopped for food.
Tired and SO dirty!
Food perked the kids up a bit, and thankfully, no one slept the last stretch of driving home, so they still fell asleep quite well 🙂 We were smart and planned ahead, and got all of the kids in sweats, fresh shirts, and fresh socks for that last leg. Then, we loaded them from the van into the house and right into bed. It was seamless and good.
What a FABULOUS day! Rowan and Solly both just woke up for the day, around 11:30-ish, and Laela is dragging pretty noticeably. But she keeps asking to go back to the lake 🙂 I’m right there with her. I can’t wait to go again!