Photoblog: Summa Summa Summatime
I have decided that I was born into the wrong family.
Don’t get me wrong, my family is great and all. They’re smart, creative, supportive, encouraging, and they’re darn cute, too.
But they don’t come with acreage.
Yesterday morning, I received a text from our friends asking if we wanted to meet them at their family’s river-side property for some fun in the shallow and slow-moving river. Perfect for the hotter than h-e-double-hockey-sticks day that it was predicted to be.
“We have an eighty acre farm,” David had said in his text.
Surely, that had been a typo. Eighty acres? Come on. Maybe eight.
I quickly learned that it wasn’t a typo in the least.
We arrived in the midst of a family get-together. It looked like a reunion. “Don’t feel like intruders,” David had said. “We’re all just hanging out, people are coming and going.”
His family, most of whom we had never met, smiled and made us feel welcome. The few members that I had met before were even more welcoming. We didn’t feel like intruders for a minute.
The first stop was the river. It was, as advertised, shallow and slow-moving. I plopped the babies in the water.
Wyatt contemplated eating rocks:
Colby, Lily, and Will tested out the water:
And the adults realized the water was definitely the place to be. (Who needs a swimsuit, anyway?)
Colby single-handedly took on The River Shark (a.k.a. David):
And the men did manly things. Like drinking liquid. And sitting. On a river.
Zander + Rock = Bad idea
“Now this… this is a tricky situation.”
“Guys? H-h-hey guys?? I’ll share my rock…”
Clint isn’t as innocent as he looks…
…especially since, when I went through my camera, I found at least 10 other pictures in various states of cleavage-zoom, like this:
Thanks, babe.
There was, of corse, some chillin’ out max and relaxin’ all cool:
And a little bit of
“I am a man! I have a stick! Respect me! Raaaaaaah!”
And snack on the rocks (not to be confused with an alcoholic beverage over ice):
After the babies’ diapers had soaked up nearly all of the water from the river, we decided to take a walk and tour the property. There was a place for David’s uncle to land his plane. A cozy log cabin built by his grandma for the cousins. We walked to his brothers’ house (also on the property), and were given a glass of wine.
The kids played in their pool (because they hadn’t been in the water for so long):
We walked a little further and came to his aunt’s house where they had a fantastic playground, fish pond, and, of course, plenty of room to run.
We walked back and spent a little more time in the river before it was time to head home.
Except… we were invited to stay to eat.
What did I tell you about feeling welcomed by them? How sweet are these people…
Sadly, my friend Jenny (David’s wife), was battling a wicked headache all day, so we didn’t get to see her until the very end. Still, it was a fantastic day, a wonderful break from the norm, and a thousand times better than sitting in our stifling hot 85 degree house all day.
On the way out, I snapped a picture of the river:
And tried to get a picture of the spectacular sunset, but failed, so I snapped a shot of myself instead:
Take a peek at the aftermath:
(And, just to cover my bases: No, that is not how I buckle her into her car seat. She was half-unfastened when I decided I needed a picture.)
Colby wasn’t immune, either:
Now that’s what I call an excellent day.
I’m still trying to figure out how to weasel my way into their family, though. I’d let them adopt me, but somehow I don’t think there’s any way to adopt an almost 28-year-old. I think my only hope is to marry Lily off to Matt or Will. Then again, I offered to trade Lily for just a few acres of land and David sounded open to the idea…
(Shhh! Don’t tell him about her poop stories!)
