Loon Lake Final Days Part 1

So much happened in the last week or so at Loon Lake, that I think I'm going break this final Loon Lake blog post up into two posts. As I'm sure you'll agree, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I think I'll just jump right into the pics and caption from there. You'll see a lot of the fun we had, including when Daddy finally arrived. It was awesome!

The deck finally got finished and we immediately used it for just about every meal. It's so nice to sit outside, and it's cool, because you're right up in the woods so it feels like a tree house.

On Thursday night, Julie arrived at the Nest. It is always so nice to see my big sister from Colorado.

Then on Friday, Connor and I drove down to Albany to pick up Daddy Jeff at the airport. Connor was resting up before he saw his Daddy. We hadn't seen him in almost an entire month so we were both very anxious.

I think you can see in this picture, but I made him a shirt that said, "Tugboat "hearts" Daddy" and then I included the date. It was pretty cute.

We had to stop by the grocery store on the way home, but they had fun reuniting. As you can see, Connor is doing really well walking with just the assistance of one hand. Daddy was really surprised by that.

Once we got back to the house, we all played on this abandoned tennis court.

Grandpa has been working very hard on "baby boot camp" so I give him a little credit for the improvements Connor has made in his walking skills and definitely his waving.

Are we happy to have Daddy back or what?!

That night we had a nice dinner and celebratory campfire. Welcome to the Nest Daddy Jeff. We missed you so much.

There is no rest for the weary. The very next day after Jeff arrived, we had arranged to participate in the "Race the Train." It is an 8.4 mile race between two nearby towns, North Creek and Reparius. Here, Jeff and Connor are riding the train to the starting line.

Me, my Dad, Jeff, and my sister Julie actually did the race. My Mom and sister Erin (who sadly was injured) watched the kiddos while we ran.

And we did it! The first mile and a half was uphill, but then it was rolling up and down and most of it was in the shade and really pretty, so amazingly we finished with a pretty decent pace. I was amazed. I felt pretty proud. I'm not sure if I'll do it again next year, but I'm glad I can say I finished the race and I am sure proud of my medal.

We didn't let Jeff rest much before we put him back to work. After just a quick nap after the race, he was already back to work cutting lumber. What a trooper.

The next day we went to a small carnival at a nearby town called Horicon. Connor chowed down on his hot dog.

He always loves cruising around a good picnic table. He loved the carnival too.

More walking practice with Daddy.

As the evening was coming to an end, there was live music and we all grooved along.

Erin and her kids even got up and danced.

That night, my Aunt stayed with the sleeping kids so we adults could go watch the fireworks that they had as part of Horicon day.

Jeff and I, still happy to be reunited. Can you believe we're in long sleeves? It was actually really chilly at night. I am missing that considering it is 99 degrees and humid here in Houston today.

The fireworks were awesome! We couldn't believe that this small town had such a great fireworks display.

We were all amazed. We even gave it a standing ovation.

Julie and I tried as often as we could to take the babies for a stroll. It's always so much more scenic and relaxing to walk up here.

Connor looks like such a mountain man with his stick.

A lively campfire.

Libby and Connor checking each other out in the tub. It was really cute, they would take baths together almost every night. What happy little cousins.

This is usually what Connor looks like right before bed. He's all wound up and giddy. We get lots of giggles. We probably should be calming him down, but we can't help but love the happy times before bed. Luckily though, he settles himself down and falls right to sleep. Good boy.

We needed to have a party to celebrate the dedication of our new place, or at least all the remodeling. We call it the Nest. Here we are setting up the decorations.

Rob the builder holding Connor the tugboat.

Connor showing off his new found waving skills. We all had these Nest Dedication shirts made up. Here we are modeling them.

Erin and I found this great book called, "In My Nest" and we read it at the dedication party.

A picture of Rob the builder and Erin who did almost all of the designing.

A champagne toast to The Nest.

Great Grandma Saunders came down to the lake one afternoon to check out the fun.

Here Daddy Jeff goes skiing.

Connor was very proud of his skiing Daddy. Obviously, Grandma was pretty excited too.

Now Aunt Erin is skiing on one ski. What a pretty scene.

Here I am waving before a ski. The water felt a little chilly at first, but it warmed right up. It was great.

It was a successful ski.

Jeff found a nice seat for Connor. Don't let go!

We ended up serving Connor dinner in the lake that night. He seemed to enjoy it. He was totally lounging out. It was really funny.

Here is another one of our many floating happy hour stations. Yum! Winnie had a front row seat.

Having fun in the lake.

Connor was getting chilly, so we stripped off his bathing suit and snuggled him up in a towel.

I like snuggling with Daddy.

After the snuggling, he walked around to keep warming up. He always looks so cute in just a diaper. You get to see all the chubbles on display.

Happy sisters reunited.

Now all the Roach ladies.

One of our good family friends, Kathryn Ford came up to the house for a few days. Julie and Kathryn met in preschool. She has always felt like a sister to us.

A happy Connor enjoying the new deck.

One of our caterpillars hatched. This is the coolest part. When it first hatches, it is still getting used to it's heavy wings, so it lets you hold him while it warms up to the idea of flying. I feel like a child again as I hold the butterfly.

Our little butterfly.

The next generation of butterfly lovers.

Connor liked this swinging chair that we have on our deck. It would make him giggle.

Julie and I took a silly picture as we hiked up Stewart Mountain.

Jeff and Dad grilling on the deck for the first time.

One morning after we went out to breakfast, we went to a local park that had a baseball diamond and the kiddos got to play around.

Connor and Libby chasing each other around the backstop.

Martin and Winnie playing in the dugout.

Libby is heading for home.

Long Lost Loon Lake Blog

I realized I had this blog post saved as a draft that I never ended up posting. I'm sure I just got distracted by the wild and crazy kiddos running around. Enjoy this one and then I'm also trying to work on my final blog post from our Loon Lake vacation. We're back home now, but we still have lots of memories to share.

So here's the dated blog from a week or so ago.

Erin and I went out to dinner for a Mom's night out in Bolton Landing, which is a town on Lake George about 15 minutes away.

We were walking in the town center and we saw this great big Adirondack chair so we sat in it. It was so funny, because you slid back really far when you sat in it.

Ha! I feel so small. We had a great night and ended up at this fun restaurant where we had burgers and fries and beers. It was just what the doctor ordered for some pooped Mommas.

The lakefront has been pretty busy these days. My cousin Shannon has her family up and she has two boys, Nick (11) and Noah (9) and Martin and Winnie just love playing with them. It's kind of fun too, because they sort of inspire Martin and Winnie to act like big kids. For example, they got Martin to use a life jacket instead of a tube while swimming and they convinced them to ride the tube behind the boat, called "The Mable", which they now love. It's been fun and it gets me really excited for when Connor can experience all these big kid things too.

I think this is actually me riding the Mable with Erin and Martin. It's really fun. When you hit a big wave, you can't help but laugh hysterically.

This is the boat filled up with lots of kids and adults. This is what I remember it looking like when I was a kid. We always had guests and there were always families in and out of the boat. It's very fun.

Waving to people coming in after a tube ride.

Sorry Connor and Libby, you're too young for the tube. Maybe next year.

They were scared at first, but eventually Martin and Winnie loved the "Mable" tube. Big smiles.

We love tube rides.

Now it's time for water skiing. Cousin Shannon is up.

Now it's Grandma's turn to go on one ski. Now that's one cool Grandma.

She's in the ready position.

Very graceful grandma.

Coming back home after a fun day at the lake.

My parent's brand new dishwasher has never worked since it was installed over a month ago and they've had a couple of people check it out, but they finally got it to work and they were celebrating big time. As someone who has done a whole lot of dishes since I've been here, I was celebrating too. Yippee!

Just a busy scene in the living room with all the kiddos.

I was very proud to see my son happily pick up a lacrosse stick the other day. As most of you know, I played women's lacrosse for many years so to see Connor take to the game so willingly made this Momma very happy indeed. It was really cute. He grabbed the stick without any prodding from me at all and smiled and crawled around with it and then even put a ball in the net. I had to take pictures. Honestly, he's been around all manner of balls from baseball, to soccer, to football, to golf, but this lacrosse stick may have been the biggest hit so far.

Just a cute one of Libby and Connor sizing each other up.

We had everyone up for pizza. Here is the kids table with Noah (9), Martin (5), Libby (15 months), Erin, Winnie (3), Connor (13 months) on Nick's (11) lap.

Here are the adults. My Dad, Aunt Linda, Cousin Shannon (Aunt Karen's daughter) and her husband Tom, My Mom, Aunt Karen, and my cousin Christina (who is Aunt Linda's daughter).

We had quite a large and rowdy campfire that night.

It was so sweet, Rob had the wood delivered to begin working on the deck and the boys wanted to watch the big truck work, so they ate their lunch in the driveway.

Tom and Nick came by to help us cut down a tree that was in the way of where our new deck was being built.

Here Tom is in the process of cutting the tree, while my Dad and Nick (not shown) are pulling the tree with pullies in the direction they want it to fall. It was quite a production and it nearly fell the wrong way, but it all worked out.

It was really funny to see everyone inside watching the men work on cutting down the tree. Of course little Libby was busy playing on the bed. Only the boys really cared. Hee hee.

Admiring the fallen tree.

Boat Parade and a Gondola Ride

We keep having fun at Loon Lake. Yesterday, we hung at home, but in the afternoon we entered the boat parade. Basically, anyone with a boat on Loon Lake can decorate their boat and join the parade around the lake. There isn't much more to it than that, but we had a good time.

We tied on balloons and made a sign that said "4 Generations of Loon Lake Lovers." There was only 3 in the boat, but we included my Mom's parents since the lakefront was originally their place, and we think that counts. We also made other pictures on paper plates, but we were running a bit late, so we didn't get a chance to hang them. We'll hang them in the house somewhere we think. Anyway, we rode in the parade and honked our horn, waved, and ate some chips and dips. It was fun.

Today, we had a nice morning and then we rode up to Gore Mountain, which is a snow ski mountain normally, but in the summer, you can ride the gondola and then hike around and have picnics or whatever, so we did. It was actually really pretty and the kids seemed to think it was neat to ride the gondola.

Enjoy our pics.

Grandma making a sign for the boat parade.

Hanging out during the boat parade. Connor is still a pretty good sailor.

Waving to the shore.

Connor liked the snacks the best I think.

Today, we drove about 20 minutes to Gore Mountain to ride the gondola.

Carrying the tugboat to the gondola. Moments like these, it would be nice if the kid would walk...ha!

The gondola and the lush green ski hill. It's pretty nice during the winter.

A picture of Grandpa with his 4 grandkids before we rode the gondola.

Happy group ready to ride the gondola up Gore Mountain.

Now the other side of the gondola. Martin was actually very excited even though he looks a little upset here.

A view of the gondola apparatus and the mountain.

The views were really pretty.

We had a really nice picnic at the top.

I like my sandwich.

A summer rite of passage...watermelon.

A cool view from the top. The clouds looked threatening but they cleared up and it never rained. We've had some great weather since we've been here.

Connor cruising around the picnic table. He was really into walking with just holding onto one of my hands today. Is walking in his future? Probably not.

So I may have jinxed the toad in my previous blog post. It has since past away. Here my parents and Erin are going on a toad hunt in search of a new toad for the boys. Ooops.

I also wanted to share a picture of the awesome wild blackberries that grow up and down the road leading to the lake we walk on every day. It's really quite a special place.