Saturdays fun at the lake!

Jenni over at Prairie Air is the host of today's Fun Monday and in keeping with the start of the summer holidays for many of our children she has come up with the following challenge:The topic for this Fun Monday is summer memories. Besides a few of your favorite summer memories, I'd like to hear what summer means to you. Is summer all about fireworks, watermelon seed wars, catching fireflies, days at the lake, family vacations, or the perfect swimsuit? What sights, smells, sounds, tastes, feelings do you associate with summer?

My favorite summer memories are real all since I had my kids. I live my summers through them I suppose you could say. I love everything about summer.....except maybe the heat. Don't get me wrong I like it to be warm enough to go the lake or beach but I can do without the temps going into the upper 80's and beyond! I love the fourth of July and the fireworks....ooh I do love fireworks! I'd say the beach but honestly I'll go to the beach anytime of year! Just on Saturday was our most recent summer adventure and this is really my favorite part.

On Saturday I had had plans for a few weeks to go to the lake with a friend of mine and her son Tanner who is a year younger then Joshua. They all get along well and love to play together.

It actually turned out even better though. While I was driving there my sister in law Gloria called to see what we were doing and I told her we were going to the lake and she wanted to know if she could come join us. I said sure sounds like fun. While I was talking to her my brother in law Josh called to see what we were doing and he had his girls with him so he wanted to come also so we had 7 kids total! 3 boys and 4 girls! The kids had a ball, tons of fun. They all really get along well together when they are having so much fun! The picture above is all of the kids eating dinner.

Below are my kids playing in the lake before the friend and cousins came to play with them. Don't they look like they are having fun!


Don't have anything specific on why I love this pic so much but I really like it....

Notice how I was being a good parent with the girls wearing their life jackets? I did forget the sunscreen though....bad momma. Although they didn't do so bad Madison and Joshua who are my super white skinned kids didn't burn at all. Izzak got a little bit on his back. Actually he seems unable to keep his pants all the way up and had a bit of a crack problem and got a little bit sunburned there...... Kenzie didn't get burnt at all she is just darker. She now has a very white bottom.

I was so happy to have my brother in law and nieces come. It has been ages since I saw them last. They are the ones who lived with us for several years. In the picture below the second picture on the top is Kenzie and Kayla, they are 9 days apart then the next pic has Aiden who is 10 1/2 months younger and Madison is 1 year younger then her. 4 girls in 2 years to two sets of parents. They have been very close over the years. One of the few things that makes me sad about moving although I think their dad will bring them up to visit and we will make sure to visit them when we come down. For many years though these little girls where basically mine also. So when I say I had 4 kids 5 and under that is just the ones I had myself. I also had these 2 so when the kids were really young I had 6 kids under 5. When Maddie was born it was 5,4,2,2,1, and newborn! Yeah days were crazy! When they lived with us full time the kids were between 7 and 2.

I didn't get as many pics of the kids playing in the water as I wanted to they were going pretty far out. This is a man made lake that is quite shallow for a long way out then goes pretty deep for the people on boats. We have gone hear several times in the summer for years but this will be the last not only because we are moving but the company that maintaines it has decided not to anymore so they are closing down the park :(

Gotta love this one too!