The kids and I are at Loon Lodge this weekend. Eric declined the invitation to come due to mediocre weather that is supposed to happen today. He missed out yesterday though! Weather was perfect!
Here’s Avos on Fun Island. She loves to sit in the middle pool thingy and play with toys. Thats HER area. Don’t even THINK about joining her or she’ll scream.
Sadly, Fun Island is no longer fun. It has a leak. They had patched it, but its clear the patch didn’t work. You don’t normally sink down on it like that.
Someone channelled the Pioneer Woman. I would link to the recipe, but I don’t know what it was. All I can say is that it was GOOOD.
We made a super awesome Treasure Hunt for the kids to do. Grandma supplied the treasure and I drew the picture clues.
My drawings were clearly awesome.
He literally ran from every clue to the next cuz he was so excited about it.
“THE GRILL!!!! LETS GO!!!!!”
Sweet! The treasure!
They both got backpacks, new underwear (or “under” as Avery calls them), snacks and books.
And fancy necklaces.
They enjoyed it so much that Dylan DEMANDED I make him another one. After much begging, I finally agreed to draw another set of clues. GRRRR!
First clue – the pelican.
He knew what this clue was right away.
The apple tree!
More running! Racing around with excitement! Mom makes the best treasure hunts EVER! I made him agree that I was his favorite in exchange for the hunt. HA HA DADDY!!!!
He had to sit down and think about what this clue could be. What? My drawing is no good?
Avery joined him for a clue. She just couldn’t keep up very well.
The 2nd hunt’s treasure was improvised on the fly. Ice cream cones. Worked for them!
Somebody hose that baby off!
Oooh purdy.
Ahhh, there we go! Hose action!
“STOP IT GRANDMA! Ok, do it again. STOP IT GRANDMA! Ok, do it again.”
I was told there were pretty flowers in the weeds. So I got into a kayak for the first time with my expensive camera. All in the name of a photo op.
It was lovely. Hot, but lovely.
I’ll have to take the kayak out again when my shoulders aren’t already so sore. It was painful!
It was a day of firsts! First time in a kayak and first fish! I’ve never caught a fish before so this was just THRILLING!
We caught I think 8 sunfish. Dylan was pretty funny. He would make us do the catching and then he’d run off as soon as the fish was reeled in so that it couldn’t get too close to him. This time though, he was distracted and forgot to run away. He was looking the other way and when he turned around, the fish was right next to him and he FLIPPED OUT.
These were genuine screams.
Notice how we don’t stop tormenting him.
The woman behind the trick – Grandma. FOR SHAME, Grandma. It was pretty funny though. Avery just sat there, not sure why he was screaming.
Grandpa kept having to come down and get the hook out b/c the fish kept nearly swallowing the whole thing. And each time the fish got thrown back in, Dylan would throw a fit because, “I WANTED TO EAT THAT ONE!!!!!!!!”
Finally he decided that he’d try his luck at it.
He was SO good at casting it out! We were shocked! I can’t cast for crap I learned, but he picked it right up.
Here he has caught one, but as usual, he’s afraid of the fish on the end of it, so he quickly dumped the rod on Grandma. “Here Grandma, take this!!!!” The pole nearly went in the water because of this fast switcheroo.
It was the biggest one yet! Dylan quickly retreated to safety.
Not Avery. She watched it flop around while we waited on the fish releaser to come back down and unhook it.
He kept flicking water onto her.
Then Avery decided it was her turn to try. This was fun. “AVERY DO IT!” Miss Independent didn’t want anyone to cast or reel it in. She will do it on her “OWN!!!”
Eventually she reluctantly accepted my help. Minimal help though.
Then we got all ready to go see my cousin Nicole’s new baby, Anna. Avery has been DYING to get her hands on a real live baby. She’s had her present all ready to go so when it was finally “baby time!!!!” she was pretty jazzed.
Here she is walking over to give it to the baby. She was practicing what to say. “Here baby. Open it.”
No pics of her with baby yet. I didn’t really take any! GASP! But its crappy weather today, so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to see the baby today.
Later!!
Our Life on a Lake 
excellent blog installment! sounds like you guys are having fun. the fish thing was hilarious–dylan’s screams and avery’s nonchalance. love the pic of you and av side by side fishing.
Yeah I’m still laughing at the fish thing. He was seriously freaking. Today we went swimming again and he and I were in the water while Avos was on Fun Island. She was peering over the edge and noticed some fish swimming by. They were swimming right by our legs and I pointed them out to Dylan and he asked me where the fish was going. I said, “towards you!” and made the Jaws theme song noise. Got another blood curdling scream out of him and he literally climbed my body.
hmmm…do you get notified of the comments? cuz i didn’t see this reply of yours til now cuz i looked for it. is there way for me to get notifications of your comments back? oh duh there’s a button right there at the bottom. jeez!
LOL – yep, looks like you figured it out! Did you get this? Im replying by email. So I wanna know if this works.
Love the treasure hunt idea. So stealing it. You are awesome at tour story telling and pictorial. Torturing Dylan with the fish? Classic.
Steal away! Be prepared to make many a treasure hunt in a row! : )
yes, i got the notification via email, then hit the reply link and it took me back here to your page to comment. kewl. i think it will show me other people’s comments as well.
Good, good.