Staycation 2012: Lake Days

If you've been following my blog for very long, you may be wondering what happened to the annual staycation.  Well, it came and went, and was not blogged.  Yet.

The staycation is our annual trip with Nick's family.  Everyone attended this year: Nick's parents, his brother from Phoenix, his sister and her husband and kids (who are twin genders and ages with my oldest three), and his youngest brother, home from college for a spell.

Until the day or so before the event, we were planning to host the extended weekend from our house, which meant that we were in full-fledged cleaning and polishing mode.  When we found a lake house at the last minute, all that was set aside for laundry and packing for six.  Nick was in Boston, there to remain until late at night the day before staycation began, so I basically cleaned everything in sight then packed everything that might be necessary for any of us.  Phew.  I needed a vacation!

And I got one.  Check out this lovely lake!  And the weather was perfect!

Pierce was looking pretty handsome in all that sunshine, so I was trying to catch this picture...

... but kept coming up with this instead!  We'll title it Generational.

 Can you tell which brother lives in Arizona and which has an office job?  Tough one, right?

 Bethelle and Joee are getting to be pretty self-sustaining in the water.  Let the fun begin!

Curie is showing me how old she will soon be.

Bethelle and Joee went around the lake with Trisha and Josh in a paddleboat and returned with lilies from the far end of the lake.  Curie knew that she must also have one, so I put her on the blue mattress pictured above and acted as motor all the way down and back the length of the lake.  It was a fabulous little outing and so nice to have a little date with just Curie.  Love that girl!

Bethelle is... well, she's just being beautiful and photogenic.  Nothing new here.

 When the water got old, Nick somehow got the brunt of the rest of the kids' energies.  There was a six-on-one wrestling match that included a few direct hits to the face (Nick's, of course).

One of the highlights of any year's staycation is always the late night games.  This always includes poker (one of the few moments of this family's life that requires complete rigidity to standards, rules, customs, and social standards).  Last year we added and loved "Bang!"  If you have not played that game, you should.  It is a board game set in the old west, but is somehow Italian, too.  It is worth the learning curve.  This year's new game was "The Great Dalmuti."  This one is easily addictive, but some people just don't like it.  Try it; you'll see what I mean.  These games kept us up more than half of the night, requiring cartoons for the early risers that had to abide by rules the evening before.

 Casey, the aspiring restauranteur, made us a five star lunch.  I think he thought that my incessant picture taking was a bit silly, but I seem to be the family historian.  They all put up with me quite nicely.

 C'mon now!  You want that, don't you?  Let's just say that Casey will always be invited to family functions, regardless of what state he lives in.

Going places like this little lake house on a beautiful day makes me want to live in remote places surrounded by nature.  I know that if I did that, real life would kick in and I would miss my easy access to Costco and to Seattle, but sunny days on a lake make you forget real life for a while.