It started out with snuggles and a smoothie. I thought I wanted to start the day with some quiet alone time, but I was WRONG! What I really wanted was to snuggle with Cora!
What a great way to get amped up for a fun day!
I had been having so much fun tubing and swimming and playing on the dockie that I hadn't even kayaked yet, and I love kayaking! I decided I'd better make sure I didn't completely fail to kayak this summer, and Cora wanted to come along.
We carried the kayak together down to the water.
We didn't see any spiders, but Cora washed away some ants with a cup of water.
We headed for the cove that's always filled with lily pads!
Cora picked a lily and a lily pad.
That orange thing is a container that protects phones from water. After a while, it was getting in the way of trying to take photos, so I took it off (but I wrapped it around my foot so it wouldn't accidentally fall in the water!)
Then we paddled over to the island.
This is a little area where the water is very shallow and some of the sand sticks through to the surface. Grass and cat tails grow there, and lots of water birds live there. It's very close to the river where water enters the lake and we can go around the island to head up the river a bit (though there are A LOT of bugs and the fish often flip out of the water, which always scares me!)
Cora got out of the kayak to walk in the water and pick some plants.
She handed them to me so I could put them in the boat.
Then she walked along the shore to see what she could see. Some purple flowers attracted her eye!
I found a teensy little island!
One year we found a little floating island about this size!
There are the pretty purple flowers!
Cat tails, too!
"Let's get some!"
"Here you go, Christie!"
Uncle Greg was there, too!
I dig that dude.
Then we headed back to shore because it was lunch time! Cora paddled us all the way there!
We wanted to test whether she could potentially paddle a whole kayak all on her own, and I think we proved that she can!
When we got back to land, Cora decided that she needed Grandma's help to find just the right container to make a floral arrangement with her beautiful treasures!
Of course, Grandma always has wonderful, creative ideas.
Here's what they made together!
While we were kayaking, Grandma found this puzzle!
It's a picture of my brother, Snow White, and me - from 1983! I was eight and my brother was five - aren't we cute?
Cora and Esme were probably surprised we were ever children.
After lunch, it was time to get in the water again!
Cora and Esme decided that it was time for tubing. Poor Mark - all the burden is on him with tubing. He has to make sure everyone is safe and that the tube (which is on a loooooooong rope) doesn't crash into a dock or the shore or a boat . . . it's hard to control and he does a wonderful job!
But he was brave in spite of the burdens!
We appreciate you, Mark!
There we are!
Then we switched back to Big Mable so Esme would join us:
Thank you, Mark, for pulling us all over creation!
Then we played in the water some.
Mark got in, too, and we jumped around on the dockie.
When we were done, I rolled up the dockie FROM INSIDE!
While we were playing in the water, Mark kicked this can.
He picked it up, and it rattled violently!
When we looked inside, there was a sad little fish mouth gaping back at us!
A tiny catfish was stuck inside the can. I demanded that we bring the can back with us so we could rescue the fish!
Grandpa got a big knife and cut off the top of the can so we could free the baby!
There she is!
We were happy to have saved a life!
After all this adventure, Auntie Christie took a small rest (I just read in the bedroom for a bit), while the girls played cornhole with Mom.
Later that night, the grown-ups watched X-Men and were surprised to hear RAIN on the roof!
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