All good things must come to an end.

Summer is finally over *sigh*.  We probably had the best summer of our lives as a family.  The lake house has worked out great (pictured below in blue and hearts).  We updated flooring, bathroom fixtures, light fixtures, etc., etc.

We learned how to manage a boat and encouraged our kids to be daredevils on the tube.  By the end of the summer Annie was on her knees riding one-handed like she was riding a bull.  Charlie was on his knees with no hands waving them in the air for joy.  Those moments made all the hard work worth it (and the memories of those moments will make the mortgage payment easier to make in January).

We also spent quite a bit of time with our new friend the shotski (thanks Wells family!).  My mom has already lectured me about what we're teaching our kids and she's absolutely right.  Eventually we're going to have to have some serious talks with them about right and wrong and such but hopefully when they look back on the summer of being 5 and 7 all they remember is having fun at the lake and their parents doing silly things with a water ski.

I can't end this without giving a shout out to our amazing dads. Without my dad offering to act as bank for us (so we could avoid flood insurance required by regular banks, and so we could make a "cash" offer) none of this would have been possible.  And without Ken's willingness to be our carpenter/handyman/mentor we never would have gotten the place looking so good in such a short amount of time.  Thanks to you both for making our lake house possible - we LOVE it!