a day at the lake

It was a first for us this summer. Hubs and I alone for a whole day. All to ourselves. At the lake. Luxury I'm telling you, pure luxury.And by alone, I mean not really alone at all. We were with a lovely handful of our dearest friends. But we were sans enfants for the day, as lovely GranGran and Grandpapa were spending the day with them, allowing us to drive down to Lake Erie to our friend's cottage to celebrate his birthday.

We try to get together with these particular friends at this cottage at least once a year. Its always a slightly different group, as each year there are a few absences due to travel/schedule/distance/illness. And the lake and the weather always vary (look at the sand bar! So shallow out there this year that it was only up to our ankles!), but I can't remember a year when we did not have a great time.

Note that this year's recreational sport of choice was Synchronized Swimming with Beer in Hand.

But if borderline crazy sports are not for you, there is always simple lakeside snacking and chatting.

As the afternoon went on, more friends arrived.

There were more visitors to the sand bar.

And more sitters in the chairs.

After I'd eaten enough snacks, read my whole magazine without having to stop and take anyone to the potty, and then laid still in the sun for a whole five minutes, I became restless (I'm a bit type A, so sue me) and I decided to do a little art/photography project. I'd brought along a big box of some selections from my vintage bed sheet collection as I've been toying with the idea of using them as photo backdrops for awhile now. So I anchored them with rocks over the side of the retaining wall above the beach and took some informal portraits of my friends. This is kind of a workshoping/first test of an idea, so bear with me as they are not perfect. It was a very, very windy day at the beach, so the fabric backgrounds are a little more, er, dynamic than I'd imagined, and my lovely subjects are not 'styled' at all. But that being said, I'm pleased with the results. And its such a nice excercise, to take pictures of your friends.

Val, basking.

Val, smiling.

Shane.

Sara

Shane and Sara (just can't keep those two apart).

Stephen to the right.

Stephen to the left.

Lovely Lara.

Alan

And the man himself, our gracious cottage host and birthday boy, Vaughn.

And after all that sun and water and sand and photography and laughing and talking, there was a giant meal to be eaten; barbecue, salads and corn on the cob. I love corn so much, I could have had just that and been happy.

A little last bit of sun to bask in, and then it was time for us to leave. We bid all our friends and good ole' Lake Erie a fond farewell, gathered up our scattered stuff and headed for home. We fell exhausted and sun-kissed into bed, and woke the next morning to find that somehow the boys looked different. Seriously, 22 hours of not seeing them, and I swear to you, they'd grown. How can that be?