Stranded, But Then Rescued (+ Sandhill Cranes)

I woke up in the morning to my brother Mark building with the marble run set.

He said he wanted one when he was a little boy (I didn't even know they existed way back then!)

and now he gets to play with his daughters'! 

I like this photo even though it's blurry because it shows his FOCUS.

We were all interested to see how his version would be creative and different.

Mark's marble tower:

Part 2:

I then went out for a nice long ride on the JetSki (the yellow one was named "Butterfly" by Cora).

Almost all the way to the other end of the lake, the low fuel beep sounded and the light started flashing - EEK!  At the very least, I knew I could swim the JetSki to shore - maybe over the space of a few hours, all the way back to the cabin.  But I decided to turn around and pull over at the boat launch (half way back).  

Some nice ladies were launching their boat to go fishing, and I was able to call Greg's phone and ask him to bring some fuel to the boat launch.

10-15 minutes later, he showed up to bravely rescue me! 

We didn't initially know where to put the fuel, but eventually we figured it out!

Then I swam out and drove away!

Refuelled!

I made it back home, but I stopped in the middle of the lake first to have a little swim.

Everyone was relaxing when I got back.

I thought I might get teased for running out of gas, and I was slightly embarrassed, but

no one acted like it was a big deal.  (insert sigh of relief here.) 

We finally figured out that the girls are really good about following directions now,

and we didn't have to hide all the junk food in the cabinet, so the Salty and Sweet table returned!!!

I got to go out and play with the girls a bit in the sand: 

Greg took a picture through the door window design, and it ended up making a really cool image of Mark's truck!

Mark was super manly, and used his extra long chopped to

cut off an asymmetrical branch from the tree.

I don't think there's a whole lot he's afraid of.

It was big!

After dinner, Greg and I went out kayaking again.

This was our last kayaking experience for the summer, since we were headed back to the Cities (St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area) the next day to fly out the following day.

We enjoyed the peace and beauty.

Here are some sandhill cranes, the LOUDEST birds I've ever 

heard with the WEIRDEST jangly honks.

Here they are walking elegantly along in the water . . .

And here's how they sound

(first you'll hear ducks and seagulls . . . then the wacky rattling honk will come and you'll know it's the cranes!)

Here is the osprey nest.  You can see two parent birds and I think some little heads

(though maybe that's just part of the nest).

The ospreys made funny little squealing noises sort of like the "eeeeeeeee!" noises that eagles make.

I can't get enough of that beautiful reflective water.

All the watercraft get tucked up at night.

And then we get tucked up, too!

Nighty-night!

Bonus: the wind in the trees before a thunderstorm . . .