going down in history...

 as one of the best weekends ever!

We arrived at the lake on Friday, and took the pups straight into the water to catch that stick.

Our tent...and Suri.

Sunny, who is an excellent camper, and the best doggo 98% of the time...but sometimes, 2% of the time, when a small dog walks by, she's all barky....

The pups sleep so well in the tent, they just snuggle down and that's it.  Even when seagulls converge on the campsite at five a.m., they don't care, they just sleep.  

Jonathan, Uncle Jonny, saying goodbye to Declan, as he's leaving for a year...

Saturday at the beach...nice clear water, warm, too.

Miss Abigail.  She camped in the site next to us with Emily and Mariel.  We got a nice shady spot on the beach, there was sunshine too, but it's nice for the dogs to be able to rest in the shade after chasing the stick for a bit...you can sort of see them in the background.

Uncle Jonny and Ruth...

Samuel, Grant, and Jon.

Evelyn, Camille, Emily holding little Tennyson.

That sunset!

Jonathan, Grant, Wulf, Emily...marshmallows!

Tennyson, Samuel, Jon, Grant, Wulf, Em

Suri, Sunny, Camille...

My view from the tent this fine morning....we are home a day early.  The forecast was for rain, wind, and possible hail, no thank you in a tent.  So we packed up and headed home.  I actually slept well in the tent, my air mattress is comfy.  Also, if you happened to pray for me, thank you, with all of my heart.  My hip behaved like an angel hip this weekend.  I did step gingerly, and was a teeny tiny bit terrified it would go out and I would go down, but by today, I almost forgot to be so careful, barely any pain, and especially no stabbing pain, or sudden unbearable pain!  

Jonathan left for his big trip this morning, and this is from the Big Apple, he made it to NYC so far!  He'll spend a week in Norway, then go to Germany.  

The dum-dums.  Suri rolls herself in the sand when she gets out of the water, like a cinnamon roll.  They get so much sand in the tent, but at least they stay over in their corner.  

It's nice to be home.  I cleaned and put things away and vacuumed and got so hot!  Evelyn was here for a bit, we had leftover grilled burgers for dinner, some leftover salt potatoes, fresh peppers and onions browned up with the burgers, and some air fryer seasoned fries.  

Sonja and Charlotte Claire left yesterday morning, and are in Norway for a week.  Paul and I and Camille are all lonely, but not for long:  Margaret is coming tomorrow night with Wulf and Tennyson, to spend a few days because Adrian is in Norway for the week.  And, Kathryn is coming too, with Achilles and Rhys because Darius went to North Carolina with some of the boys for a few days.  It'll be more than busy in here, and Grace will come visit during the day, with Grant and Ruth.  

Tomorrow morning, however, Camille and I will be going to the library.  Then in the afternoon, I'm going over to visit with Abigail, to begin training for my job.  She has her own book keeping business, and needs help.  I don't know how much help I'll be.  I took accounting in high school, a few decades ago....like 40 years ago, oh dear.  We'll see though, I'm ready to give it a shot, and am hopeful it'll work out for me!  

Wednesday is physical therapy for Cam, then on Friday, we're going on an adventure!!!!  We're staying in a Holiday Inn, and going up into the Adirondacks to see a string quartet perform...Emily, Evelyn, Camille and I!  Saturday we'll meander our way home via a fun beach, and an ice cream place that makes their own stuff...

Ah well, I'm tired...taking down all the camping stuff, packing it up, then coming home and unpacking it all and putting it all away:  wow, it almost erases the vacation!  Oh dear though, I had a strong memory today of way back when, when we used to tow that 35 ft. camper with the 15 passenger van:  we would camp for 9 days, then get home with a PILE of laundry.   We didn't use the shower in the camper, but we would put the dirty clothes in there, and oh my goodness, there was so much to do when we got home.  We would unpack and start a load right away...and there were so many kids to take care of then, too.  phew.  I do miss it, but the work, it was a lot.  

I have big plans for tonight:  Paul bought me some Epsom salts,  so I'm taking a bath...ahh, sounds so relaxing...