Second Annual Lake House Weekend

You can read about the first Lake House Weekend here and here. We were graciously invited back by my SIL's family this past weekend and we were thrilled to spend a weekend out on the lake. We grabbed a quick dinner, finished packing and my parents picked us up for the 2.5 hour drive up to the lake house Friday evening. We arrived around 9:30, got settled, and chatted for a few hours before calling it a night.

Saturday morning we woke up just before 8:00 and grabbed a cup of coffee and sat on the deck enjoying this gorgeous view. 

Everyone woke up shortly after and grabbed coffee and we went on a "Coffee Cruise" around the lake in the pontoon with the pups. I should mention that my brother and SIL have two pups (Kodi and Hitch) and my SIL's family has two pups (Lucy and Bandit) and I adore them all. They are all rescue pups and they are all so sweet. Lucy (below) is my favorite. She is just such a lover and cuddler. She is trying to give me kisses in this picture and she just loves to be as close as possible.

I adore these dogs so much. 

Our lovely hosts made a beautiful spread of pancakes, bacon, fruit and orange juice so we ate our yummy breakfasts on the deck after the coffee cruise. Oh my heavens! I haven't had bacon in so long and it really hit the spot.

After breakfast I went for a good walk with Garth and my parents. It was a gorgeous walk and it was starting to get really warm. We were walking down this sunny patch of gravel and I had flip flops on so I was watching where I was going to make sure I didn't hit a big rock and hurt myself. I saw a stick, or what I thought was a stick, until I got closer and it started to MOVE. It was a fat, brown snake and I started screaming and running. Garth followed. My dad, the ultimate nature lover, is running after the snake wishing I would hush so he could get a better look at the snake. Hilarious. But also creepy. I shiver just thinking about that snake.

Anyways, after our walk I was hot so I jumped in the lake for a quick swim. Then I sat near the water with my SIL and we chatted and read magazines. After a bit of that Garth and I grabbed rafts and floated in the water.

My dad and brother sat on the dock and hung out with a cold one.

How cute is my pregger SIL? That is her sweet mamma behind her. 

Floating is seriously the best. I just cannot express how happy being on the water makes me. I love it so much. I especially love looking at all the houses on the lake, admiring their boats and floating devices. Ahhhhh, lake livin'.

Finally my brother and SIL...and Hitch... joined us! He hated being too far from his mom and dad and had to swim out to them.

After a few hours of floating we had lunch. I didn't grab a photo, but we had tuna salad, hot dogs, chips and watermelon. After lunch we just sat around talking, napping, and relaxing. The boys played ladder golf and then around 1:30 my brother, Brad, came in from Chicago. 

We said our hellos, Brad got into his bathing suit and we all came back out to float. My dad kayaked while all the kids hung out.

It was good to catch up with Brad since we haven't seen him in a while. The boys went tubing. We went for a boat ride and then did more floating. Rough life, right?

I got out and read on the pontoon with Garth and my mom while my brother decided to jump off the dock. 

Before dinner we went for another pontoon boat ride. The dogs were so tired from playing in the lake all day. Especially Kodi. IN the picture above he literally fell asleep on Garth's foot. So funny.

We decided to dress up Hitch. We sat at the edge of the dock with Brad for a while talking and the sun was reflecting on the water giving the illusion of little diamonds dancing around. It was so pretty. My next house will most definitely be on a lake.

Around 7 dinner was served. Ron's famous ribs, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, and cheesy potatoes  I don't even like ribs, but these are incredible, fall off the bone goodness.

After dinner Ron got a fire started while we watched the sunset.

The sky was so gorgeous we decided to take pictures since all the kids were together, which doesn't happen too often.

Love them.

We ate smores around the campfire and then called it a night.

I didn't get any pictures from Sunday, but we slept it. Drank coffee on the deck. The boys went kayaking for some good brother bonding time. My SIL, Jess, made this killer egg casserole. After breakfast we packed everything up and then came back and sat around the lake. It was hot, but it was so windy and wavy that you wouldn't want to swim. Around 1 we headed out, grabbed lunch on the way out and got home around 5, unpacked, and went to bed early because we were beat from having so much fun. Love those kinds of memories. Good times. Good people.