A Day at the Lake

It's been quiet around this blog because we've quietly been enjoying some time away from home. While on maternity leave, I'm still coaching our school's Power of the Pen team. It has been a nice way to stay "in the loop" and use my teacher brain before school starts again in August. The state tournament was on Friday, about an hour away from my parents' home. Our team didn't place in the top 5 (which are the only ones they announce), so we won't know how we did overall for a few weeks. But, we did have an 8th grader place 13th and a 7th grader place 10th. Not too shabby. Being only an hour from my parents' home, we decided to make a weekend of it all.

We enjoyed Saturday brunch at my Aunt's house before my cousin's high school graduation. Sunday got hot and we decided it was high time to introduce the kids to Lake Erie. We're not going on our typical beach vacation this year as the thought of driving 10ish hours with a 5 month old is not high on my bucket list (or on it at all for that matter). He eats every 3 or 4 hours during the day. It takes him a good half hour or so to eat and get changed. A 10 hour drive would quickly become a 15 hour one with all the stopping we'd do to feed him (not to mention our fairly newly potty-trained girl). Still, it was a beach.

The water was cold, but the sand felt great. Little man didn't mind having it between his toes. Cate enjoyed splashing around and hunting for rocks. We had to be careful though-- the recent downpours of rain left higher than normal levels of bacteria in the water. Thankfully, it didn't affect any of us.

The sunshine peeked out through pockets in the clouds, which meant no one got sunburned either. It could not have been a more perfect day to head up to the lake. We're hoping that on future visits to my parents we can head to the lake some more. Maybe when the water isn't so gross or cold and we can dip our whole bodies in.

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who serve. Pictures from our morning parade experience coming soon.

~Melody :-)

PS...Sunday also brought a milestone for my little man. He rolled over-- tummy to back for the first time!