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The week of July 4th, my family took a week-long vacation to Inks Lake State Park. Everyone came except the four Andersons, since Piper was born just two weeks prior to the trip. The trip was full of water, sunshine, cooking, games, talking, and relaxing.
Most of the trip was spent in water: the first day and a half in pouring down rain. We almost went home. The next two days, when the sun came out, were spent boating, water skiing, kneeboarding, tubing, and swimming. I left my camera in the car where it was dry for these occasions, so the photos only reflect our "dry" activities. Maybe next year I'll get a waterproof point and shoot.
Our campsite
The cove on our campsite where we docked the boat
Swimming in the cove
Coming in from tubing
To celebrate the Independence Day holiday, the park hosted a bike parade for kids. They had all kinds of fun things to decorate the bikes with: balloons, pinwheels, cards to tape on the wheels to make a spinning noise, ribbon, flowers and more. It was so festive! The kids had so much fun getting their bikes all spiffed up, then they made a single tour, riding the loop around the playground area.
Later that afternoon, we rested in the shade, and Grandmama (my mom) told stories to the kids. I love the enthralled look on their faces.
Aidan listens while clutching his beloved animals.
Aowyn is listening too.
Playing around with a super out-of-focus style that makes this dreamy, watercolor-looking image. Mercy took these photos of us as the sun was setting.
By the fire one evening....my dad had been in the nearest town studying for most of the day, but he came and joined us for marshmallow roasting!
On the actual fourth of July, we visited a nearby town that we had heard hosted a spectacular fireworks show over the river. It was excellent, and we have seriously considered fighting the traffic to get out there each year!
Eventually it got so dark, all you could see was the lights from the hundreds of boats floating on the river.
The fireworks reflected off the water, illuminating it, was truly breathtaking.
Some random highlights from the trip that I don't have photos of, but I don't want to forget!
IT'S BIG AND RED AND CRAWLING
I was cooking dinner, and something creeping along the ground caught my peripheral vision. I looked at it, and you know how brain moves so fast sometimes....this is what I thought: "Giant Bug! Tiny Lobster! ...Crawfish?"
Yes, it was a crawfish, crawling at least 50 yards from the shore. We had no idea the lake had crawfish in it, since we had been up and down the shore, swimming, boating, and more without any crawfish sightings. Daniel kindly picked it up with tongs and put in in the reeds just off the shore. We laughed so much - couldn't get over how odd it was to see a crawfish right in the middle of our campsite.
TURTLE WARS
There was a shallow area near our site where we would swim or cool off. Several times I took Aidan and Isabel out in their life jackets, and we swam just deep enough where I could still have my footing. One afternoon, we spotted a turtle sunning himself on a small stump protruding a few inches out of the water. The diameter of the stump was just large enough for the turtle to rest comfortably. Aidan begged for me to take him closer to the stump, so he could see the turtle better. We hushed our voices, and crept gently, trying not to stir the water too much, and got as close as I dared we could without scaring the turtle into the water. Then we saw a second turtle sticking his head above the water, swimming toward the stump. When he reached it, he slowly maneuvered up the backside of it, losing his grip a few times. When he neared the top, he was behind the other turtle still sunning himself on the top of the stump. Then, with a literal shove of his paw, the second turtle pushed the other one off the stump and into the water, proceeding to take the other turtle's spot as King of the Stump.
I laughed outloud! I couldn't believe we had seriously just seen one turtle shove another off the stump! Later the first one came back, and tried to share the stump with the second, which eventually caused the second to lose his grip and fall off. And then Aidan asked me to move closer, and both turtles hopped in the water and swam away.
At least three times during the days we were there, we saw these same turtles sunning on the same stump. It became a ritual each time we went out in the water, to see if the turtles were there. And Aidan always wanted to sit completely still in the water, as close as we could, watching silently. It felt so precious to me, to sit in that moment with him, soaking in nature in such a simple way.
