Last Friday (until this past Wednesday) we left for the family lakehouse. It is a place of absolute peace that everyone loves when they visit. The reality is that it isn't anything glamorous, but it is the perfect place for kids to walk in with a wet swimsuit, and towel, and eat a sandwich and not worry about tracking in sand, or leaving wet hiney marks on something nice.
My grandfather helped build it for his family back in the late 30's/early 40's. His parents, sisters, and he lived in it until their house was built in town, and then rented it out to WPA workers who were working on the dam. In the late 60's he bought the lake lot, and moved the little cabin out to the lot, and over the years he expanded it, although it is still tiny. If you sleep out there it is pretty much accepted that you can hear everything, and have very little privacy. There is currently 1 bathroom (although the family is working on that), and we brought down bunkbeds for the bunk room to help sleep more bodies - although Blondie and her aunt ended up sleeping in a tent because it was actually reasonably cool at night.
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With it being the 4th, all kinds of family desended on the lake house, so there were lots of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins around. My girls LOVE tubing - I'm going to have to get them a knee board at some point. Big Al did learn to ski this weekend (on two), but I'll post more on that tomorrow. Thankfully, the cousins were more than willing to take out the boat, and haul the kids all over the lake.
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Our littlest cousin swam and played too.
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In the evening we sat around the fire and ate smore's or watched the fireworks. We were able to catch up.... act silly, and just plain hang out together.
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We ended each day fairly exhausted, although not everyone made it to their bunk before falling asleep.