A Day At The Lake

The past few months have been a bit overwhelming.  We have had two virus's go through, Antonio's' health crisis, a huge amount of appointments, testing for Carolyn and a lot of paper work and appointments to be met for the recent adoptions.  Add to that, our every day life of home schooling, farm work and living in a very large family, with many special needs.  We just needed to take a down day for fun.

We got up Monday morning and the weather was comfortable and overcast.  Our schedule was clear of appointments and commitments.  We got everyone up and around, went to town to buy gas, food, junk food and ran away to a nearby lake for the day.  It was wonderful!

I told the children that this was a day of celebration and just having fun.  To celebrate the ending of summer and all its business and that hopefully fall will be calmer.  We were in no hurry.  I let the children eat whatever they wanted and play long and hard.  They all had a blast.

Just so no rumors get started about me...the open bottle on the table is Kombucha...we brew and bottle our own.  :)

Three girly girls!

We rented a jon boat for the day and the children took turns going for a ride, with William rowing them all over the lake exploring.  After about two hours, he started having one of his sugar crashes, so he gave Carolyn some rowing lessons.  Even though they are both very physically active young people, there arms were sore for days afterwards.  :)

This was his last trip out and you can see him getting very tired out.

Timothy loved it but refused to touch the water.

Billy spent most of his time laying on his tummy with both hands in the water splashing!

William really enjoyed doing this.  When he was a little boy, we would go to this lake and he had a little rubber boat.   I would tie a 100 foot rope to it and the other end to a tree and he, with a life jacket on, would row around all he wanted and not get to far away.

There is a huge playground there.  They all played for hours.

Billy and Timothy.

Carolyn and Kinsley.

William keeping an eye on Billy.  You can see in most of Billy's pictures he has food pocketed in his cheek.  He is in feeding therapy.  It takes him at least two hours to eat each meal.  He has such chewing issues.

Timothy and Carolyn.  Carolyn is so good with all the children.  She loves them all dearly and enjoys playing with them.  They all love her.

We just spread out all our things, under the trees at the picnic tables and let the kids come and go, playing, snacking and resting. 

Elizabeth and baby "A".  Baby "A" is now our only foster child.

Kinsley has a lot of sensory issues.  She did not like the feeling of the grass on her bare legs.

My sweet Timmy!

The children didn't take a break all day!  When it came time to leave... Billy, Timothy and Kinsley were all asleep in less than a minute, once we loaded into the bus!  We had such a great time, we might try to do it one more time, sometime this fall, when it is even cooler.  Hopefully Tim will be able to come with us next time and maybe grill out.  With Antonio's CP and lung disease and Elizabeth heart condition...they do not handle heat well at all.  So the weather was nice but a little cooler would have been even better for them.

My happy young man is back and doing so much better, Glory to God!!!

Kinsley had enough of that prickly grass!

My sleepy Billy after a long day...But mom...I want to go back out on the boat!

Thank you God for such a day of rest and joy at the lake!  For your beautiful creation and the blessings of family!

Jeremiah 32:17  Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

Blessings,

susan