Labor Day Lake Life

We had a fun time at the lake over Labor Day weekend!  Bert preached Sunday morning so he, Abby and I came back for church on Sunday, but other than that we just relaxed at the lake and enjoyed one of our last summer weekends.  

The kids had lots of fun cousin time.  They watched movies and made forts and played in the water, on the jet skis, and on the screened in porch.   

"The biggest fort ever."  

Look at those cute girls ready for a boat ride. This boat is getting on up there in age and is not the most reliable piece of machinery, but it had worked for my brother the weekend before so we were planning on taking it out for a spin, but the battery had died and it was a no go.  The girls didn't mind though.  They were having too much fun with everything else to notice.  

Uncle Jimmy (my mom's brother) has a house a couple houses down from the lake cabin and they were there last weekend too.  He came by on his boat and took the kids on tubing rides and let them ride the yellow board. Emily and Claire wanted Bert to ride with them on their first tube ride.  

Emily and Jacob asked if they could ride the tube together.  Jacob fell off before the boat even really started going, but after he got back on they were set and ready and had a fun time!  

Hannah didn't want to ride the tube or the jet ski, which was totally fine with us.  On Monday afternoon, about an hour before we started packing up to come home, Hannah decided that she believed she would like to ride the jet ski.  She loved it and ended up getting to go on 3 separate rides during that last hour before we headed up.  It takes her a little while to warm up to things, but once she does she's good to go.  

Her real love all weekend was just playing in the water.  She was literally as happy as a lark just swimming, floating on her back, enjoying the waves, playing on the floats and jumping off the dock. If she was in the water, her cute little face looked like this in the picture below.  

The famous "yellow board" has been around our family for quite awhile.  Me and my cousins and siblings all rode it when we were growing up and most of us are in our 30's.  It was so fun to get to see my kids do something that I have such great memories of.  

The kids started off laying down, holding on to the handle that is attached to the yellow board.  Once the boat starts going they move to their knees and then stand up, all while holding on.  It takes a little coordination and they all did awesome!  

The yellow board has handles on the side so that an adult can drag along behind them until they are steady and comfortable, then the adult just lets go.  

You can see Bert in the background of this picture swimming back to the dock after he had let Hannah go.  We were so proud of our Hannah Beth for wanting to try it and for doing such an awesome job!  

On Emily's first time riding the yellow board you would have thought she'd done it many times before.  She was so comfortable and excited out there.  

After that first time, she didn't need/want anyone in the water with her when she was getting started.  

Looking like a pro yellow boarder :)....she'll be ready to ski next summer!

Bert and I think Abby looks soooo much like Hannah at this age.  

This big girl's favorite thing of the weekend was the jet ski and she liked climbing in this little raft. She also loved the tube and asked to ride the yellow board, but we thought we should wait until next summer.  She doesn't want to let those sisters do something without her.  

Papa loves to do lots of things with the grandkids....reading books, tickling, rocking to sleep, taking them on boat and jet ski rides just to name a few, but getting in the water isn't his favorite activity. He's happy to be down at the dock with us, but would just rather not be wet/cold.  Ha!  I guess your grandkids can get you to do most anything because Emily talked him into getting in the water with her. True love.  

I loved this picture of Emily jumping off the back of the boat. She looks like the happy, carefree, precious little 6 year old that she is. 

Abby enjoyed floating in the water with Mommy the couple times she got to get in.  She wanted to be standing on me the whole time though.  I'm sure, this was to help her keep tabs on her sisters.  She watches them like a hawk.  

We had a fun weekend at the lake and we were thankful we got to go back down for one more weekend before the weather starts to get cooler in the next few weeks! We'll miss summer, but looking forward to fall!