Life at the end of the dock

We are just getting unpacked from a great little lakeside get-away with some great friends of ours. Just a few weeks ago it all came together---an available cottage, an acceptable week to be off work, and a spot for Alex at camp. That's right---he got to go BACK to camp. When we started making these plans, we found out that our friends' oldest daughter would be attending camp at the same time, leaving Alex without his buddy. We got a great deal for sending him back twice in the same summer, and like magic everything settled into place.




Well, mostly into place. I'll admit that it did feel a little strange to be going on a little vacation without one of my boys, but then I thought of how much fun Alex would have. And, I thought about how nice it would be to focus our parental efforts on our youngest--who by the very nature of birth order rarely gets his parents to himself. And it was---we had a great time despite missing Alex.



As I'm sorting through pictures, I'm not surprised to see the dock for our cottage show up in a very high percentage of those pictures.


It was a perfect place for so many different things. There was playing---so much playing and swimming and laughing. There was eating and cuddling and warming up in the heat of the sun. There was fishing--which was a close second in Jameson's mind to swimming--and there was scientific exploration. There were even pottery lessons with lake clay! Mostly, it was a great place to be with great friends, whatever we were doing.