The Walk We Walk

As I thought about how to make this Rock Lake Lodge post unique to other Rock Lake posts, I toyed with the idea of doing the ABC's. Surely there is something about the cottage that can relate to each letter of the alphabet - and by stretching it a bit in certain areas, I even managed a picture for almost every letter too. But there is one little thing. Its in reverse. We're starting with Z. (It was easier to wrap my mind around uploading pictures in a very particluar order by starting at the end - not sure why anymore, just know that that was my rationalization when I began)
Before I begin the alphabet in reverse, let me say that it was a fabulous vacation. Family is great and it just gets greater all the time (and I'm an outlaw;0)). The weather was about half and half. The first 5 days were hot and in the water all the time kind of days - (even I swam about 7 times a day on those days) and then the last five days the moisture, wind, and cold came in . . . but of course you still must swim . . . and most of the adults managed at least one dip in the below 10 weather too. Crazy - but fun. Crazy fun.
Z is for the zillions (perhaps a mild exaggeration) of memories made once again this year. Vacations are a fantastic time to make memories and this year was no exception. No particular picture for this letter since every single one is a memory!
Y is for yummy meals. We all take turns with a big meal and of course we all take turns helping. This works great and allows us to eat quite well on vacation.

X is for Xtra pictures that I forgot to stick where they were supposed to be and are now here. Don't worry, it gets better;) XYZ aren't exactly the easiest letters to come up with brilliant thoughts on.

James and Kevin

Kylie and Summer

W is for water. Water is a staple for vacations. You've gotta have it. And its one of the best things about Rock Lake. Just about everything fun happens in the water. The water was a fabulous temperature this year and it made getting in easy - even when it started getting chillier.

This is Kade with one of his pet frogs.

Kade, Jeremy, and Christiaan each with their own frogs whom they kept for a whole day, but who escaped in the night. (more on this later)

The older girls set up a "pampering" session one day and here Bethany is getting her turn from Holly. Maaike did a whole bunch of hair and nails on the little girls and the big girls too.

Brooke and Steph enjoying the lake.

W is also for wet. Kylie would hardly go in the water for the first few days (and she was afraid of boats the entire time), but here she all of the sudden decided that the water would be great fun - and of course she wasn't wearing her bathing suit! Figures.

V is for volleyball. And this was the year of volleyball. Of course its always the year of volleyball for the men, but this year the women were the diehards. We played game after game of 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 - and once in a while we even let the men play too. We honed our skills and came out quite proud of the talent we had!:) (Although I'm still waiting for my prize for winning) I would love to stick a picture of the girls doing their thing, but alas, being in the court doesn't allow for being behind the camera, so this picture of the boys will have to do.

U is for uncles. Some of the uncles did lots of fishing and frog catching with the boys. I wish I had more pictures of it, but I don't.

T is for Titus. What a great little guy. He smiles instantly and rarely cries. I shouldn't forget to mention that he is super cute - but then again, you can see that for yourself!

S is for swings. The swings are great fun for the 2-5 year old crowd.

S is also for storytime. I don't know how many times Opa has read Bluebeard's Story, but it seems like whenever a grandchild asks, he obliges - and they absolutely LOVE it!

S is for sand. Sand is great for playing volleyball on, burying children in and making sandcastles on. (and giving kids permanently dirty feet!)

S is for soccer. The kids played a bit of soccer this year too (though not as much as last year) They also had rounds of dodgeball and football.

Here is Kylie "playing soccer" I think she fits in the family well - don't you??? I had to include this picture even though it is a tad blurry.

S is for Summer. I love this picture of her. I think it captured her perfectly.

R is for Readers Digest. The cottage wouldn't be the same without them.

R is for the rowboat. The kids are experts at manoevering this boat - it took me a bit to get the rhythm going I must admit!

R is for Ryan. He is taking in a game of intense volleyball in this picture.

R is for rock jumping. This was really fun for those who tried and a lot of kids did it for the first time.
James

Kevin

Jonathan

and Jonathan Jr. (although it could be Ryan:-z)

Q is for quiet times and I think that with 30 grandchildren running around at various parts of the week, that it is rather obvious why I have no picture to put here:)

P is for paddleboats. These are also fun and on the hotter days it was great to just take one out to the middle of the lake and relax.

P is also for partners. And Judah and this fishing rod were partners for most of the week. It was pretty cute.

O is for Owen. Owen's words for me this week were "You stop that!" It was good fun.

N is for nerd. No further explanation required.

M is for "motorboat". It was cute to see these three boys (who did pretty much everything together) sitting on the boat and enjoying the cruise.

M is for Mackenzie. What a beautiful and sweet little girl who loves her Dad and Mom very much, but warmed up to the crazy crowd as the week went on.

M is for marriages. I only have pictures of a few couples - Dan and Sarah.

Jonathan and I.

and Josh and Steph.

L is for lounging. Its just an important part of the vacation.

K is for Kylie.

J is for a whole lot of kids and adults too - but here are a few.

Jeremy

Judah

and James.

I is for Isaac and Isaiah.

H is for Hunter - sporting his super clean look once again.

H is also for Holly and helper Holly was a super helper. (as was Maaike) They were often found entertaining their younger cousins and their help was a big help to the mothers!

G is for glove. It is on Kades's hand. It is to protect his cast. It allowed him to swim and jump off the dock like the other kids. It worked pretty well. But - it hurt very bad after a while when the tape had to come off of his arm.

F is for families and here are some of the family photos. My camera battery was dying during these photo shoots, so I really didn't have too many shots to choose from.
The kids at home.

Richard and MaryBeth, Summer and Hunter

Nate and Beth, Mackenzie and Titus

Josh and Steph, Ryan, Jonathan, James, Jeremy, Brooke and Owen.

Jonathan and Denise, Kevin, Kade and Kylie

Dan and Sarah, Jesse, Jacob, Joshua, Josiah and Jonathan

F is for fishing. Lots of that happening at the cottage this year.

F is for Frog Kingdom. This was ruled by Christiaan, Kade and Jeremy and was their enterainment for an entire day.

E is for Euchre. It was played every night, but I don't have any pictures of it.

D is for dishes. The kids took turns looking after the breakfast dishes. Here are the boys taking a turn.

D is for the dock. The dock is a favorite place on sunny days. (rats -the pictures are actually aof the raft) Anyhow, lots of fun out there too.

C is for Christiaan.

C is for cast. We tried real hard at first (at least I did) to keep this thing clean and dry, but we eventually gave up. (Good news - i took him into the clinic today and he got to take it off and leave it off and no follow up required at all!!! The doc was impressed - and we got to see the initial x ray too - it was a fracture right on the corner of one of his bones - it was neat to see the picture of it and see what/where it actually was)