note: grab a cup of your favorite beverage this is a long one! couldn't be helped as I wanted all this recorded for our family 
Woman Lake~that time of summer has already come and gone but not without leaving some great memories and fun stories. Our time up north this year was nothing short of wonderful. I just can't sit here and adequately find the words that fit the bill for our trip, neither Rick or I were ready to come home at the end of the week and trust me that is rare.
I've listed the pictures in order that they happened and instead of writing about each child I hope to share a few highlights of each day, thankfully I don't need to come up with many words as the pictures do most of the talking.
Saturday: Leaving on Saturday morning went really smooth, I decided this year no pressure, we'd leave when we left and I wasn't going to get myself all bent out of shape but being 'late'. How can you be late when your on vacation? So we pulled out of the driveway at 9:48 and I checked the record from last year and it was not that far off from last year and without the stress! Plan A worked so onward.
For whatever reason I got car sick almost right out of the starting gate, heading up to Minneapolis was really making me queasy. My best guess was anxiety over the heavy traffic we encounter every year going through Minneapolis/St. Paul, lack of sleep, hunger (but nothing sounded good), feeling heated (the sun came in on the passenger side). Whatever the reason was I did learn something very noteworthy: Rick seems to drive much better when he believes his wife could ralph at anytime! Trust me folks, this is not a bad thing! LOL
Well thankfully the car sickness finally passed and all the above items changed so who knows, didn't care I was just glad I felt better.
Rick and I played the ABC game and I promptly won, Jordan slept in the back seat, Kayla wasn't with us (missions trip), Eric was watching CARS and Sam was entertained most of the 7 hours by a $1.00 spider-man dry erase board I found at Target. The ride up was by far our best one yet.
this first picture is one that we all love seeing, only 8 miles after we turn.......Sam kept asking are we on Woman Lake Road yet?

the next picture is Sam and Daddy happy to be unpacked and looking out at the lake

Sunday: Sam and Eric spent some time fishing off the dock, Sam got a little impatient (imagine that
) and came to find me to get a nack (snack). On the way to the lodge I had a little conversation about his first fishing experience that week.
Me- Sam did you catch anything?
S- NO, my fishin pole DON'T work!
Me- really? What's wrong with it? Does Daddy know?
S- The fish just keep gettin my worm..... (as he grunts and makes a angry face)
I think the fishing pole is fine but there may be a small problem with the fisher BOY.
Also on Sunday Kayla and Alissa arrived, I was really missing my girl and it didn't really hit me until we got to the lake. Up north seemed different without all of us there. My brother stayed behind a day to drive them up and they arrived around 4. It didn't take long for her and Alissa to get settled and start playing
Kayla and Alissa on the swings (this is kind of a before picture, the after will come later in the week)

Our other Sunday event was the steak fry, this is one of the nights the entire group eats together, grills full of steaks and everyone brings a dish to pass.
Here is a picture of the steak fry, my best guess there is 40-50 of us. Guess I never did an official count.

My brother and my boys enjoying their dinners

I could stare at pictures like this one forever, love watching my family, brings such a feeling of contentment and blessing.

At our fist fire we broke out the s'more stuff. I believe Rick perfected browning marshmallows and even Eric got in on it, although Eric's s'more order was something like this:
Can I have a s'more with no marshmallow and no crackers?
I think it would have been easier to ask for a candy bar? 
Sunday evening Sam captured his first crayfish or crawl-dad and I forgot to mention earlier in the day that pole finally worked and he caught "a fish with fins"


Monday: Rick's sister Laura and her husband Jerry own a cabin about 20 minutes from the resort we stay at. We planned on heading over to visit for a while as Rick's parents were up staying with her. Her cabin is beautiful and Laura looked so at home there, it fits her and Jerry nicely. While we were there Eric helped Grandpa Eagen play a game of cribbage. I'm not sure who won this game but Eric sure had fun.

Below is Rick, his mom and Laura out on the dock.... I told you I liked these pictures.

Well while everyone else was hot in a game of cribbage or looking out on the dock Sam and I decided to go exploring, I was thinking we'd see a chipmunk or a pretty bird, maybe even a cool looking bug but nope we found this guy .....

Daddy came and caught him so the boys could have a closer look. What is that saying? Snakes, snails and puppy dog tails... the snails come later, the puppy is at home at her own resort 

In the picture below Grandpa is teaching Eric how to play cribbage and Eric played the whole game (with help). This is precious to me and I pray these memories plant firmly in Eric, they will be treasures.

Tuesday the weather was so so. It was warm enough to play in the water but overcast and humid. You had to wonder when the storm was coming but it managed to stay away from us. Rick had the boys out on the jet ski and they loved it. Later that afternoon we slipped away to see a movie, I was pretty sure the weather was gonna get icky for awhile and I figured it be a good way to avoid it. We saw Ratatouille and it was cute. Sam snuggled with me the whole movie and it was a good thing because that theater was freezing... Rick and Eric couldn't sit with us because we were a little late and it turns out Rick had Eric on his lap also trying to keep warm. Can't say I minded a bit.


Sam didn't even have to be moving to have a great time on a jet ski!

Sam was a little cold here.... LOL

In the evenings after dinner we'd visit the neighboring resort and enjoy some of the great ice-cream they offered.

Eric developed a little crush on Kayla's friend this week, how could he not she's a really sweet gal and she loves the Lord, at least Eric's on the right track! 

Since I had the camera most of the time this was the best picture of me the first few days!

My mom and Rick enjoying the fire

Wonder what he wanted? Trouble is most people (including me) have a hard time saying NO to those eyes....

Wednesday cleared the skies and brought BEAUTIFUL weather..... high 70's, low humidity, sunny and warm and the only goal for the day was to see who could get water logged first. Eric and Sam were pretty cautious last year about the water. This year Rick and I really wanted to encourage them to get past some of that fear. We traveled out to a play raft that was stationed between some docks and once out there I realized to convince them I'd have to take the plunge, so in I went. Sam was convinced enough to get in with me for a few minutes but almost took me under trying to hang on to me, I couldn't get the notion in his head that what he was trying to use my neck for was being accomplished by the life jacket. Eric also had a hard time with the idea that the life jacket would REALLY hold him up so I just gently 'set' him in the water and let go and once he realized that he indeed really did float he got quite excited. He 'swam' to Daddy and then back again and then no matter what that life jacket did enough was enough and he wanted out. Nevertheless I was proud of them for trying. Progress.
Jordan enjoying some time in the water

Eric on a boat ride

Either the day was just that nice or Sam eye's got the best of my mom because trust me when I say she hasn't been in the lake for YEARS! In she went to help Sam find snail shells and they found quite a few.


Snakes... snails (or shells) and puppy dog tails

between brothers

Daddy taught Eric how to skip rocks... his favorite skipper rock is home on his night stand

Wednesday was coming to an end, we'd had fun in the sun, great meals. Did I mention that my mom made these incredible breakfasts everyday? Eggs Benedict, french toast, pancakes, sausage... oh sorry side tracked there. Back to the story. Anyway I was walking in front of the cabins and I hear "Missy, Missy come over here Kayla's hurt". His voice and tone were so calm that I didn't really think much of it until I got close enough to hear and see my girl on the ground and indeed hurt. She was sitting up but hunched over and holding her arm. I thought for sure it was broke when I first looked at her. She had been swinging and the swing broke from under her when she was in a swinging motion. She fell backward and landed on the back of her head and her back. Because the shirt she was wearing had a low back there were rocks and gravel in the scraps on her back. Her hair was filled will rocks, gravel and dirt and what I thought was an arm injury was a finger. The finger right next to the one she smashed the beginning of June. Thankfully we were able to triage her in the cabin. This was her third accident in the last four weeks.... can she be done now?
Here you can see her back, my mom is holding ice on her head and I'm looking at her hand/finger making sure all the right parts move.

My brother was still big fish story-less so thankfully with photoshop you don't need to come up with stories, you can just photoshop in what you know you would have caught had conditions just been a little different.... here is the picture he took, the fish was added when he got home.

This is a real fish! Jordan caught this but it wasn't big enough to eat so he went back to the lake to grow some more.

Sam and Eric 'surfin'

Isn't she beautiful...

Jordan and Eric on the paddle boat

Yes that's me, yes that's a swimming suit enough said

Alissa and Kayla around the fire

Rick woke up at 5 am long enough to see this guy on the dock in front of our cabin

Thursday and Friday went too fast! The weather continued to hold and our only mission was to play. I just tried to literally soak in everything I could, watching our family play, enjoying the beautiful environment that is just so undeniably God's creation. In the past I spent so much time thinking about packing up on Fridays that I forgot to enjoy them. This year I said pack up, smack up.... it'd get done and I didn't care. oh my goodness.... I almost forgot to write about Kayla, no not an accident this time but with her track record lately I have to admit it made me nervous. When Kayla was younger (8 or 9) she tried water skiing, it was not a good experience. She gave a whole new meaning to a big gulp and after tasting that much of the lake without success she hasn't tried since. This year she said she'd try and not only did she try she made it up!!! Yeah Kayla
Also on the last day Jordan dropped a ski and did great! Yeah Jordan
We played in the water all day, got some ice cream, burned up the last of our fire wood, took a boat ride and marshed the last of the marshmallows, stopped up at the lodge and made the reservation for the next time...... until then the other Woman in our life will be waiting and this is one other Woman that I welcome anytime. 

Kayla in the water getting ready to ski....

Up she went......

Down she went

and up again!

Someone pushed Jordan in the lake.... LOL (mmmm kayla)

need I say more?

Eric watching his big brother on one ski



Saturday....9:21am tears
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