the lake...belated!

oh my goodness...i am sooo behind on blogging. hopefully i can get caught up a bit in the next couple of days. here are some snippets from last weekend at the lake. my sister and brother-in-law were up from NC, so it was extra special to spend some time with them.

while at the lake mike and i celebrated our 6th anniversary...we even got out for a few hours for a date. we headed up to winona lake to walk, eat ice cream, chat, and simply enjoy being together. apparently spending our anniversary up there is becoming a tradition, as that is exactly what we did last year. it is nearly impossible to think it has been 6 years since our wedding...amazing! i suppose that deserves a post all its own!


jilly-girl and i enjoying some sunshine!

climbing up mommy...can you see how strawberry-ish her hair color is getting!

checking out uncle richard...might i mention that all three of the girls fell more than slightly in love with uncle richard and aunt shell. on our first night there we took an evening boat cruise, and elizabeth couldn't take her eyes off of uncle richard. she soaked in every word he had to say, looking up at him with the most enamored look in her eyes. she also colored countless pictures with him and was thrilled beyond belief when he helped her construct her very own "double wide on wheels" with the legos! :) kate also got her very own house...with landscape from uncle richard the horticulturist.

kate shows aunt shell her treasures (err...rocks!)

...and then talks uncle richard into helping her find more (right after he helped get rid of the "worm" (which was really just a twig...yep...my girls are a bit dramatic and squeamish, especially when anything remotely looking like a bug or worm is involved!))

elizabeth wasn't really into the water this time around...however, she thoroughly enjoyed building with grandmommy and poppy's legos. this was her very own creation...built while the rest of us did some splashing in the water. unfortunately i missed out on getting a picture of the really impressive creation she built with uncle richard. but seriously, libber girl is becoming quite the builder...well, really she excels at anything that involves focus!

kate, oh spunky monkey kate...here she is licking the spatula after i frosted poppy's carrot birthday cake.

and jilly is a big fan of helping...especially with the dishwasher!

we bought my dad ladderball for his birthday...and had quite a bit of fun...although, none of us were really all that fabulous...but we improved throughout the weekend. kate was quite the bola fetcher with her system of draping them over her arms and passing them out.

while swimming wasn't libs preferred activity, she did enjoy taking a special fishing boat ride with poppy....she was so proud and excited to be perched up there in the front seat!


...and we caught some fish. mike pulled this bass out while fishing from the shore...

kate was somewhat interested in the fish...well, until it jumped from mike's hands and started flopping all around on the grass (which happen seconds after this picture was taken). poor girl was terrified!

saturday morning was the fishing derby...while the girls were a bit squeamish anytime we actually caught a fish, they did a pretty good job. elizabeth did eventually get past her squirrely-ness enough to reel in a few all by herself.

...and kate was quite thrilled to win her own tinkerbell pole as a door prize...she spent LOTS of time practicing casting (ie...dropping) her practice weight out and reeling it back in.

she also quite enjoyed making a gooey sticky yummy mess with a fudgsicle

with aunt shell and uncle richard (jilly was sleeping at this point...hence her absence)

kate and clover...the girls were big fans of aunt shell and uncle richard's big dogs (ie...their furry cousins)...elizabeth especially enjoyed clover.