Our BIG Long Weekend

This weekend was kinda big.  And when I say "kinda," I really mean "super duper mondo with a cherry on top."

On Saturday morning, The Hubbs took off to spend the day with Uncle D down by where they grew up.  Left to our own devices, I'd like to think The Princess and I did pretty well.

It was beautiful outside...perfect weather for airing out the camping stuff.

Always good to do a dry run at home before heading out to the state park
for the first time each year.  Glad we did, too, because we'd have been really
disappointed if we had gotten out there to find the splody batteries in our
air bed pump.  After a quick trip to Walmart, we were rockin' and rollin'.

I know a certain little girl who had an absolute blast running through the
sprinkler and spending the entire day outside.

Grumma and Grumpa brought Home Run Inn pizzas, so I threw them in the
oven and we ate outside.  Not exactly a possibility in the state park...
one more reason a dry run is necessary. :)

Piggy was in heaven.  She loves to be outside, but Bubbles wasn't so sure.

"Oh, yeah!  I have a tire swing!  I remember this thing, and I shall now
proceed to play with it until dark.  You go do grown-up things.
I'll be right here if you need me."

I kid you not; this lasted for hours.  I got tons of garden and yard work
done this weekend while she entertained herself.  Best of both worlds.

Bubbles decided camping was okay after all, though The Princess
lost her bed.

But that's cool.  Momma's bed was totally big enough
for three.

On Sunday, we made our first trip to the beach.  The water was chilly, but bearable, so we stayed for a good hour or so.  It didn't occur to me to bring the camera, but there will be lake pics from today...stay tuned.

After swimming, we all scarfed down some good ol' PB&J dinkies.  For those of you not in-the-know, dinkies are regular PB&J sandwiches sliced into four triangles.  Squares are just wrong.  They must be triangles, or they don't taste right.  Just trust me on this one.

The afternoon was spent toodling around the area and scoring some totally excellent new flip flops for my girl and me.  After hanging out as a family, we dropped The Princess and The Grumps' house for a slumber party.  The Hubbs and I then headed down to Bear's house for a game night.

After bags, frisbeer, and playing music in the yard,
we moved inside to play some King of Tokyo
and Ticket to Ride.

Boys are way more fun than girls, hands down.  I liked King of Tokyo, but
I was terrible at it.  I was always the first to die, but it was still fun.

Next up: BONUS Monday!  I love long weekends.  Love 'em.  Like, really, really hard.  And I needed this one pretty desperately.

This morning, I headed over to The Grumps'  house to pick up our girl and then broke camp and put everything away before the first rain showers came through the area.  I was also able to finish up some work in the yard, placing planters that didn't yet have homes and just kind of puttering around pulling weeds and such.

Right around noon, the clouds dissipated and the sun came out.  Guess where we spent the next hour or so?

Living so close to a lake is a godsend.  I love that we can hop on our bikes
or load up the car and be there in two minutes.

I also love the fact that our whole lake is private - you can't get on it or to it
unless you live in one of the surrounding subdivisions.  Our beach is
only accessible to keyholders, which means no blucky teenagers
stinkin' up the place and leaving trash behind.

When we got to the beach today, we were greeted by a family of
Canadian geese with seven so-ugly-they're-cute goslings.

Our girl loves the shallow area between the piers up by shore.  Lots of
good rocks to throw, and fliddling water is super fun.

So, there was lots of time spent hunting for rocks...

...and splashing...

...Oh, hi, Da!...

And then there was running...

...and jumping...

...and jumping...

...and jumping...

Totally stuck the landing on that one.

Can't forget the Baywatch Babe run: always necessary and super-fun.

All that running and jumping was kind of like
work.  Better chill by shore for a few.

See ya later, geese!

I love seeing her at the lake.  It's like magic; something about the water
calms her like nothing else.

Okay, I'll admit it: after going to the beach, I was tuckered out.  We had some dinkies, and my eyes started to slam shut.  I figured we only get holidays off every once in a while, so I took advantage of the special bonus day and had myself a fantastic nap.

When I woke up, The Hubbs had just come in.  He told me that he and The Princess had been on a hike, and asked if I was interested in joining them for ice cream and fries.  How could a gal resist?  Sounds like the perfect afternoon snack to me.

She loved her hot fudge sundae.

On the way home after ice cream, somebody got
the giggles.

She also decided it would be fun to fly,
just like the bulldogs like to do.

With clouds like this moving in through the area every few hours today,
we were actually really lucky.  The rain didn't really cramp our style at
all.  Pretty amazing for Memorial Day, which is pretty notoriously
a washout around here.

So, not only was our weekend long...it was also BIG.
Big work was accomplished.
Big fun was had.
Big love keeps growing.
Big smiles, big hugs, big memories.
Big, big, BIG.

Here's hopin' the weather cooperates in the next few weekends, because I think we may finally get The Hubbs out of his comfort zone and into the tent.  Wish us luck!