Weekend at the Lake House

Because summer is almost upon us....Eric had a 3 day weekend...it was a holiday so we had no hockey or lacrosse games....the stars and planets were perfectly aligned, we finally had a chance to take Markos to the lake house at Alpine Lake for a weekend.  Somehow visits to the lake house are not nearly as relaxing for me as I would like, but the kids had fun and I guess that's what is important (for now).  ;-)

We arrived Friday evening, after dark, and got settled in.  Daniel eagerly showed Markos the loft bedroom where the kids sleep.  Markos liked it up there which was a relief to me because I wasn't sure how he would do with sleeping upstairs while we were downstairs.  Unfortunately, he did wet the bed 2 of 3 nights and I suspect that might have been partly because once he was up there, he was afraid to come downstairs at night by himself because he rarely ever does that at home.

After getting up and having breakfast, the boys headed off into the woods to play.  I gave my standard (useless) plea, "please don't get in that stream and get all muddy".  Yea, right mom.  Like THAT'S going to happen!  They promptly went to the little stream in the woods behind the house and got all muddy.  Daniel showed Markos the huge rock that is beside the house, only to discover that Markos is too short to get up on the rock by himself (thank goodness!).  I eventually went out and helped Markos up onto the rock.  It was yet another time that I'm a happy that Markos has a fear of heights.  I'm pretty sure that might save his life someday.  ;-)

 

We went down to the lake shore and Eric did his usual golf ball and snake hunting, immediately finding a ring-neck snake that he was super happy with.  Daniel held the snake with no reservations.  Eric insisted that Kenz and I touch it.  Although we didn't really want to, we obliged.  Markos, on the other hand, really wanted to, but just couldn't make himself do it!  He would get all set, with his hands cupped to hold it, then the second Eric would get ready to put it in his hand, he'd panic and open his hands and jump away.  I suspect that by the end of the summer, he'll be holding snakes too.  (yea.)  Speaking of snakes, Daniel made Eric very proud by finding and catching a snake all by himself.  (oh joy.)  Thankfully, before he attempted to pick it up, he did ask Eric to check and make sure it was ok for him to pick up that particular snake.

 

 

 

 

The boys played along the shore for a while - throwing rocks and splashing the water with big sticks.  They asked to get their feet wet.  They ended up completely soaked.  Again, no surprise.   Mackenzie and I sat in our chairs and read, looking up occasionally to ensure that they were still there.  Lily laid under our chairs to stay out of the sun.  Smart dog. 

 

 

 

Lily was not a fan of the water, nor is she a fan of walking.  She is, however, a huge fan of simply being where we are.  She would want to be down at the lake with us, she just wouldn't want to walk down there.  So, Kenzie usually carried her. She is the cutest, sweetest (soon to be most spoiled) dog, EVER.  We took her crate with us, so she slept fairly well for being someplace new.  Granted, I had informed Eric before we went that I was taking the weekend off from night-time dog duty, so I forced him to get up with her throughout the night even though he was sick (no rest for the weary - I don't get to be sick when it's a weekday and she needs to go out!).  I did get up once or twice and take her out, and I was glad that Eric was primarily doing it because it's a little scary at night to take her out up there.  It's very dark out, and I kept envisioning a bear or some other large animal jumping out of the woods at us.  Lily wasn't helping my overactive imagination and fear any either.  She is very jumpy and afraid when she's outside and hears ANY noise at all.  I hope that as she continues to grow, she gets a little braver or she's going to look ridiculous - being a large hunting dog and all, afraid of a bird.

We had a fire Saturday night and Markos was able to try his first S'mores.  It was no surprise to us that he didn't like it.  The boy likes nothing sweet except twizzlers and cinnamon coffee cake.  Didn't like just the plain marshmallow.  Didn't like just plain chocolate or even the plain graham cracker.   After trying and then whining, "I don't like it!", he settled for sitting by the fire with a bowl of jalapeno tortilla chips -- his favorite!  Daniel enjoyed chocolate and safe-for-him organic graham crackers that I found.  The rest of us ate S'mores (and then felt sick - a little s'mores goes a LONG way!).

 

Sunday was Mackenzie's 14th birthday.  YIKES!!! 14!!!  How did THAT happen?!

We got up and did the usual - boys playing in the woods, playing by the lake, Eric catching snakes, Kenz & I sitting in the sun - until lunch time.  The kids did swing on the tire swing for a while.  Markos was excited and couldn't wait for his turn, but he quickly discovered that he wasn't a fan when Kenzie gave him his first push.  I was taking pictures and kept saying, "smile", despite his terrified expression.  Funny thing was, he would stop whining and smile every time, but it was such a forced, get-me-off-of-here-smile, that I kept cracking up laughing at him.

After lunch, we all got much needed showers and got ready to go out to celebrate Mackenzie's birthday.  We started by playing mini-golf over at the lodge at Alpine.  It was Markos first time playing.  He lost interest in attempting to actually learn to putt very quickly, but thankfully, we had the place to ourselves so he just ran around and played whatever hole he wanted, without having to endure the painful waiting his turn while playing with the rest of us.  We stopped keeping score because Daniel fights too much when keeping score and it was chaos anyway, (but I'm pretty sure that I won).  :-)

After mini-golf, we loaded into the van and drove over to Deep Creek Lake - about 20 miles away - to go to dinner at Uno's.  A friend of ours (and one of Mackenzie's teen girls' group leaders at our church) called Uno's and had them surprise Mackenzie with dessert.  It was huge and she ate almost all of it.  When we were finished, we played outside Uno's for a while.  This Uno's is on the lake and has a pirate ship, whale, elephant, giant patio chairs, etc. to play on out in the grass between the restaurant and the lake.  Markos had been excited about the elephant since Daniel mentioned it the day before.  I think he might have mistakenly thought it was going to be a real elephant, but he was still excited to sit on the fake elephant.  We watched the ducks down by the docks and took a ton of pictures.  It started to get really crowded (holiday weekend at the lake - go figure!) so we headed back to Alpine.  I took the kids to the playground at Alpine when we got home and we stayed until dark.

 

 

Monday, we got up and I started cleaning up and packing up while the kids played with Eric.  Same stuff, different day.  Aside from taking a hike to the Memorial rock, which is Daniel's favorite rock there, we pretty did the same thing we did every other day during the weekend - sit by lake, catch snakes, take walks, play in woods. We headed home late afternoon and make it back to Pittsburgh before dark.

  

 

 

 

 
All in all, it was a nice weekend.  The weather was beautiful, and after all this rain that we've had, that was a welcome thing!  Unfortunately, we all arrived home with bad sunburns because this momma wasn't even thinking about sunscreen yet (because of all this rain that we've been having!).  Oops.  Sorry kids.  Thank goodness for Solarcaine spray.

Stay peaceful lake - at least until we return again anyway!

New Firsts

When the rain stops and the sun shines and it's hot outside, it brings opportunities for new "firsts" for Markos.  In recent days, he's had his first fudgesicle.  He was not a fan -- too cold.  He's fallen and gotten his first scrapped knee of the summer - in America anyway.  I'm sure by the scars on his legs that he had plenty o' scrapped knees in Ethiopia!   He's had water gun battles and played with water balloons.  Today, he put on his new "Cars" bathing suit and his new water shoes, and played outside in the sprinkler with Daniel.

Daniel was hot and miserable when he got off the school bus.  I was mowing the grass, so Markos was hot from playing outside.  They had a blast.  (Lily was not a fan of the water but was very interested in the two of them running around and screaming like maniacs.)

Markos' chocolate skin sure did make Daniel look all the more "white"!

Seriously, Daniel, you need to eat, boy!

 

 

 

 

Little Miss Lily - 2 lbs heavier since last week's vet appt.  Does she look bigger already?

Markos' Dedication Day

 

Yesterday, we gathered with family and friends, both at church and then afterwards at our home, to dedicate Markos to God - promising to pray for him, to teach him about Jesus, to live lives of example that he can follow. It's a big, humbling task to assume, but one that we strive to do for all of our children. One that we can only do with the help of the Holy Spirit working in and through us. Our parents (Eric's mom and my parents) and our church family made the same promises. We are blessed to have a faith community where we can find Biblical teaching, support and encouragement from other believers, and love for us and our children.

Several families from church, as well as friends from outside our church, were joining us at our home afterwards for a picnic. Our house is not big. We were praying for sunshine given all the rain that we've had. The forecast looked somewhat hopeful, but not great. Yet, we awoke to gray skies, clouds, and sprinkles of rain on our way to church. I tried hard to focus on the service instead of the rain outside or other distracting things thrown my way that morning.

The dedication was very nice. Markos was fairly well behaved throughout. And, a short while into the service, I looked out the door to see bright sunshine and a beautiful day. God is faithful, and He is good, all the time.  Just 2 of the many truths that I pray Markos embraces with all his heart and mind as he grows older...and 2 that I pray I will continue to hold on to every day, even when skies are gray and rain is pouring down.

Dedicating Markos

Praying for Markos

The family

Cake from Kribel's Bakery - Yummm!!

some of the kids playing at the house afterwards

Hanging out and eating

Markos was super excited to get orange soda all day!

The face of an instigator.  A little water gun battle quickly got out of control once Eric got involved. :-)

Just a tiny bit wet

Markos loved his new bubble gun.  Thanks Chelle'!

Puppy got some love and attention, but mostly preferred to sleep in the safety of her crate.  Who could blame her, really?!

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Little Miss Lily

...is home!!

I had posted last week, but Blogger had issues and deleted everyone's posts.  They supposedly replaced them, but mine mysteriously did not return.  In that post, I introduced the new puppy that we were en route to go and purchase in South Carolina.  I also explained how it came to be that my family took advantage of me convinced me that this was a good idea.  If you missed said post, well, it doesn't really matter now.  It's a done deal.  Lily is now part of our family.

On Saturday morning, we got up early and drove to Charlotte, NC.  Thankfully, we had an awesome trip - little traffic, made great time, the kids were much better behaved than we expected, and we arrived and checked into our hotel before 4:00 pm!

The free evening in Charlotte was a huge blessing because one of my dearest friends in the world moved just south of Charlotte over 10 years ago.  Other than she and I meeting up at MOPS conventions through the years, we hadn't seen each other in a long time.  I had never gotten to see their new house, and when they came through Pittsburgh this past summer, it just so happened that it was when we were on vacation at the beach.  Their house was only about 30 minutes from the hotel where we were staying, so we spent the entire evening with them.  We ate dinner at their house.  The kids played.  They all got to meet Markos - which was extra special because they are in the process of adopting a little girl from India.  Late into the night, Susan and I sat in one room and talked, while Eric and Dave sat in another room and talked.  With some friends, you can not talk often or not see each other frequently, but when you do, you just pick right back up where you left off.  These are those kind of friends.    You know, the same kind of friends that you still miss terribly even after all the years that they've been gone.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early and, after breakfast, got on the road again to go pick up our new puppy.  We had to drive about an hour and a half to Gaffney, SC to get the puppy.  We knew there was a chance that the breeder would not be back from a trip they were on when we got there.  They were not, but there was a house-sitter there, ready for us.  She was holding our new little girl.  She was snuggled up on her chest, with her face buried under the ladies' chin.  She was shaking and much smaller than we expected her to be.  She was absolutely adorable.  So sweet. So precious.  We took care of the paperwork and settled into the van.

We had taken one of the middle seats out and I was in the back with Daniel.  Markos was in his car seat in the remaining middle seat.  Eric was driving with Kenzie up front (she has been getting car sick lately, so the back seat wasn't a great idea for such a long drive for her, plus we figured that I would need to manage the puppy.)  Turns out that wasn't as difficult of a job as we expected either.  She was so sweet, she would just snuggle up on my lap, or with her head on my lap while she laid on her doggie bed between Daniel and I.  She slept on and off almost the entire trip.

We began discussing names the second we pulled down the breeder's driveway.  We settled on "Lily" (the spelling of which, we have not yet settled on!  Eric keeps spelling it wrong putting an extra L in it - "Lilly".  I spell it correctly "Lily".)

Sweet girl!

The kids finally have a new dog!

When we arrived home, we let her try out her new "doggie trolley" that Eric installed over our front yard.  She liked it ok.  She wasn't a fan of being in the grass, and she is still somewhat clumsy with those big long legs (think: 1 hour old fawn).  :-)

 She didn't eat much on the way home, but it was a LONG car trip .  And, she made up for it all throughout the night when she decided to try to kill me stay up most of the night.  We are crating her in our bedroom at night, but she apparently missed her momma and whimpered and cried a lot - unless I laid on the floor next to her crate and put my hand in the crate so she could sleep on my hand or arm.  Very sweet and cute, but oh man, I pray she starts sleeping better tonight soon!!  We took the advice of our vet and put a stuffed animal in her crate with her today.  I thought it was only fitting that she get the lion that I purchased for Markos, which he hated and was terrified of, since Rhodesian Ridgebacks were bred in Africa to hunt lions and protect families and children when the men were away from the home.  She is apparently a lover, not a fighter though. 

I took her to vet today just so Eric and I wouldn't worry about her non-stop until Wednesday when I had originally scheduled an appointment for her.  Neither of us really remember what it's like to have a young puppy, so we kept wondering "is this normal"..."is she ok?"...."I hope she's not sick".  Happy to report that, not only is she not sick, she also does not have a hernia like we were told (and were given a small discount for when we purchased her).  The vet thinks it's just a little excess skin from where the umbilical cord was not cut close enough.  He'll tuck it in when he does her spaying.  He said she looks great, so we're relieved.

She is definitely a doll baby and she's definitely going to be a big girl if she grows into her feet and into all the excess skin she has wrinkled around her face and neck.  So far, she is doing AMAZING with the housebreaking.  One pee pee accident but that is it!!  Go Lily, go Lily!!