here at the lake...

At the lake with five daughters:

Abigail, Sonja K., me, Evelyn Joy, Mariel Joy, and Emily...

The adorable little cottage, right on the water.

The kitchen has personality...

The stove in a little alcove...

The built-ins!

The view!  There are three stories of view, including a balcony from the top floor.

A tree grows through the deck, or rather, they built the deck around the tree.

Mariel, me, Em, Ev

Brekky on the deck-y...

That view though!  We drove around the Keuka Lake area, and visited a few wineries.

Sonja K....

This is the view of our dock from the deck.  We swam twice today, the water is gorgeous.

The charcuterie for lunch, on the deck.

An afternoon visit to a brewery for some tasting, I only had a few sips, but mmm.  My favorite:  the creme Brûlée.  

Night time view from the deck as I grilled the chicken for a late dinner.

We played some silly games and laughed too much, Emily was dared to fit into the broom closet...

So far this has been a fabulous weekend.  I count myself as one very lucky, or rather blessed girl.

We have solved the world's problems, drank coffee, played in the water, made fantastic food, the girls kayaked, we sampled some wine...I had one sample, because I cannot tolerate much alcohol, but love to taste it.  

So it's been nice, and I am very thankful for my girls.  There were supposed to be two different girls attending, but they both had to bow out, last minute.  Booking places ahead of time is tricky, this one was booked months ago, in the winter.   It's hard to tell what you'll be doing so far in the future, but if you don't book them, they get filled up. 

Anyway, it's been nice, to have such a sweet reprieve, even though we are fully conscious of the horrors going on in Afghanistan.  We did place a phone call to Benjamin the other night, to check on him and make sure he's doing all right.  What a nightmare.  God bless all the brave souls working so hard to get people out of there...