The Last Hoorah

Each summer we go to the lake with the cousins for one "end of summer" weekend before school starts.  This year was no exception.  After what felt like 129 days of 100+ degree weather, relief finally arrived last weekend, and the days were gorgeous.  August in Kansas is rarely this beautiful. 

But, as all weekends go, there was some good.....some bad.....and a little ugly.  Here is what we saw.

THE GOOD

Splashing each other with the jet ski provided hours of giggling fun.  This looks worse than it was....at least according to my husband.  I was doing a small amount of freaking out from the shore.  For those who don't know, this lake has had its fair share of accidents and drownings this year.  I was not looking to add one more to the list.

They just never get tired of it.  NEVER.  I think my husband literally logs nearly 6-8 hours every day.  And he has the hair to prove it.

THE BAD

 This puts a major damper on the day, but luckily it was only down for a few hours.

THE UGLY

I do not even want to think about what might be lurking in that water.  This is where my 5 year old spends a great deal of time.  He loves snails, mussels, and his new favorite creepy-crawly....crawdads. 

And, yes, I realize that he has only one foot in the water and he is wearing a lifejacket.  That's the rule for the kids - if any part of your body is near the lake, the lifejacket must be on. (It is not a rule for the adults, although you couldn't tell it by looking at these pictures!)  It allows me to cope.  If only that lifejacket would protect him from all that nastyness he is sitting in.

Aforementioned crawdad.  Caught. With a cool whip dish.  The poor thing never saw it comin'.  I spent much of the weekend dreading the reaction I would get when I my son was told the crawdad could not come home.

And this, my friends, is what a very serious crawdad conversation looks like.  Uncle J is the crawdad expert.  He knows all about what they eat, how they come out at night, and that when you shine a flashlight at them at night, their eyes glow red.  I think Uncle J should keep information like that to himself, unless he wants to stay up all night sitting at the edge of the lake with a flashlight.

I am only so risky with my camera at the lake, which means no jet ski riding for the camera.  Usually that works out just fine.  This weekend I apparently missed some pretty great shots.  Here is what I wish I had seen:

• The look on my son's face when a skunk ran right in front of him on the way to the shower house.
• My husband being thrown off the jet ski by his 12 year old niece.  A video of him flying off the jet ski when she turned a tight corner would have been priceless.
• My SIL and BIL noticing a stranded boat taking on water with a family of 6 inside.  My husband arrived within a few seconds and they all decided he should be the one to tow the boat to shore.  A few seconds after they hooked up the rope to the boat, my BIL and SIL took off on their jet ski, turned too sharp toward the cove, and dumped the jet ski over.  I'm thinking the family of 6 was feeling pretty happy that they did not choose them as their taxi!
• The look on my husband's face when a kayak passed him while he was swimming the jet ski to the cove after it ran out of gas.  We have always wondered if the reserve gas tank works on the jet ski.  Now we know.  It doesn't.