A Day at the Lake House

In January David and I had rented a cabin in the Pocono's through homeaway.com. We had so much fun that we decided to rent another cabin, this time in the Finger Lakes area of NY.

Last Friday afternoon we picked up my nephews, Aiden and Seth, and they stayed with us at the cabin that night. However, as soon as we arrived the boys announced "it not look like a cabin" and they decided to call it the Lake House instead.


Dawn on Saturday morning was beautiful and since I was wide awake (due to one particular nephew who was calling my name at 6am) I slipped outside to get some pictures of Seneca Lake in the early morning. Shortly afterwards both boys were hungry for breakfast and excited to explore their outside surroundings.


Later in the morning company arrived - the rest of the Loucks family and our friends, the Brackmans (Carla, husband Jeff, children Trey and Roman, and dog Marley). That's when the real fun began! We spent the rest of the day eating good food...


walking on the train tracks and collecting train spikes...

tossing the horseshoes...


relaxing in the lawn chairs...
skipping rocks across the lake (and teaching the youngest boys how to find good skipping stones)... going for rides on the pedal boat...
having s'mores at our lakeside campfire...

enjoying the beautiful weather...

and, most of all, enjoying being together!
Did you notice Sophie in a few of these pictures? One of the main reasons why we've started using the Homeaway website is due to the many homes that permit dogs. Sophie loves to travel and she seems to enjoy the adventure of a new location! But on this trip there were other neighborhood dogs running around, so Sophie met 4 new dogs, in addition to hanging out with her boyfriend, Marley, for a second weekend. It seemed like the other owners were comfortable with their dogs roaming the beachside, and I attribute that to the off-season (since I'm sure more renters in the area would mean more imposed rules!) Because Marley is very good at obeying when he's called, we can trust Sophie too, since she generally stays as close to Marley as possible. (In this picture you can see two other friendly dogs with Sophie and Marley.)

After hours of playing, Sophie was exhausted. And apparently, lack of sleep causes puppies to forget the rules and climb up on the furniture! It was so cute that our strict principles flew out the window, and we let her stay on the couch for the rest of the evening.This weekend nourished my soul, and I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is willing to use his vacation time for mini-get-aways with my family/friends.

I am also thankful for these women... two wonderful friends... one a sister by blood, one a sister by choice. I am very blessed that the three of us have remained close friends for over 20 years!