This was our third or fourth annual Memorial Day get-together with my college friends, Saskia and Sarah, and their families. We used to have Deena and Chris come too, but since she's now a professor in Washington state, we replaced her spot with Tita and Daniel. Lucky for us, Tita and Daniel fit right in, because they went to USC as well and Daniel has actually been friends with Barney longer than anyone (since they are both from Charleston and knew each other before college).
We always try to pick a cabin somewhere between DC and Athens with all the requirements requested by all the families. That's not always an easy thing to find, but Gabriel has done an excellent job of it over the last two Memorial Day weekends. It sure does pay to be married to a computer geek.
We all arrived fairly late on Friday night and tried to sleep in on Saturday morning, but the problem is that with three of the couples having kids, it's nearly impossible to sleep later than 7 or 7:30. Poor Saskia was woken up even earlier most mornings, since she has the youngest kid (17 months old) who was also suffering from a double ear infection and on antibiotics. Poor Elea. We had all brought food with us and pre-planned who would make meals, so we ate great food, except for when we ordered pizza from the local pizza place nearby. Each pizza was COVERED with so much plasticky cheese, we could barely eat the pizza. Even Cyrus said it was the worst pizza he'd ever had.
One of the highlights of this trip for me was being right on the lake. It was Tita's request and I'm glad she asked for it. We went paddleboarding and kayaking and swimming every day we were there, even though the water was a little chilly and poor Gabriel could barely tolerate it the one time he jumped in. I LOVE being on the water and it was perfect for that. There was also a hot tub for after swimming in the chilly lake and a fire pit for making s'mores and warming up during late night talks. Such a great place.
After all the driving and sleep deprivation of the trip, all of our families were pretty exhausted when we got home. I wonder how we could make it easier on ourselves next year. Maybe could take off the Tuesday after? Bring black-out curtains? Hire a chef? Ha ha...I don't know. Maybe next year with all the kids being another year older, things will get easier. Even so, I'm so glad we have done this, as this is the only guaranteed time I ever see my college best friends. Now that Tita is back on the East coast, I get the added bonus of getting to hang out with her and Daniel as well.
-Shirin
Barney reading to all the boys, wearing some of Jack's dress-up hats.
Jack loves books and sat quietly while Cyrus read him several. I can't wait to see how these guys become friends over the years.
A picture of the Zandiehs, Moda-Mutters, and me, by Cyrus.
The whole group, minus Cyrus, the photographer.
Cyrus in the picture, of course not cooperating.
The boys in their adult life vests that we strapped onto them near the lake, since we forgot theirs at home. They were great about swimming and paddling around in the lake. Cyrus went kayaking twice on his own and did fine. I was a bit nervous about it, but the water was calm and he was wearing a life vest and we always had other adults around besides myself, so it all went great.
We did attempt a hike on Sunday, sans the Zandiehs because Elea needed to take a nap. Sadly, the hiking trail we found was very short and paved, but we did walk in the woods for 30 minutes and have a picnic next to the trail, so it was still fun.
Kai wanted to be carried a lot during the hike, which really detracts from my experience, although I do enjoy snuggling with my little bubsy. He's just not that little anymore (46 lbs), so my lumbar vertebrae really protest.
Gabriel reading to the bubsies. Jack is so cute.
Elea taking a bath with these crazy big boys.
Our view from the dock.
Our dock. My one complaint about the lake is that there was no beach to walk down into the water from. You just had to launch yourself from the dock, which wasn't as good for the little kids. Still, it was really nice to lay out here in the beautiful weather after a nice invigorating swim.
Gabriel, Sarah, and the boys waiting for a boat.
Jack in all his gear.
Daniel was the boat master.
Daniel paddleboarding.
Gabriel paddled a bit too.
I like kayaking a lot better than I like paddle boarding but I gave it a try.
All the girls swimming with my two little guys.
Trying to bob ourselves up out of the water for the picture.
Drying off after the swim.
Tita and I tried to do some selfies but kept laughing and laughing hysterically after taking the picture at one thing or another. Tita thinks she looks cross-eyed in this one.
I think my nose looks like a huge pointy beak. Ha ha...at least we got a lot of laughs out of them. We also laughed at how we kept pressing our heads together in this big frame of the picture. I deleted a bunch of them, but I kept these two. Hooray for sister selfies at the lake!
