Woo Hoo Water Fun

Check out the fish. Allow me to introduce you to the huge carp fish of Smith Mountain Lake. One of our favorite past times is going to the marina and feeding the carp; they are particularly fond of popcorn and a veritable feeding frenzy breaks out if you dump a cup or two into the water. Some of the fish even become airborne! These guys are tame; as you can see they will eat right out of your hand! No worries, they don't have any teeth and just come up begging!

We were down in Virginia this weekend where the younger set enjoyed tubing. Look Ma, No hands! Usually Nicole is using her hands to indicate her preferred rate of speed: Fast and outside the wake.

The weather was glorious; sunny, warm and water warm enough to dip into without a wet suit. This was the same water we swam in three weeks ago with wetsuits for the triathlon. In fact, the weather was so glorious that Nicole ended up with a sunburn. Now there is something drastically wrong with this picture, as Howie, my husband is a pediatric dermatologist. In fact, her friend also ended up with a sunburn.

And yes, I allowed it to happen. I flunked my nomination for mom of the year. I guess I figured I would get the inevitable argument over sunscreen application out of the way while it was still May; after all, there is plenty of summer ahead. So I presented my case as to why sunscreen was necessary, spritzed two moving targets (the sunscreen hadn't expired after all, as it was clearly visible where the streaks made contact...) and finally simply said, "Suit yourself; I bet tomorrow you will be begging me for sunscreen" and let it go at that. Of course their rebuttal was loud and clear: "Nuh-huh... no way..." To which I responded "yes, way." I was right. Yes, way, they both got red. Yes, they both applied sunscreen the next day in addition to wearing sun shirts, in addition to several reapplications of "glue stick" sunscreen to nose and cheeks. Now we should be good for the summer, even through anticipated reapplications at the beach in SC in three weeks.

The only problem with going to the lake is that it is six and a half hours away, so it makes for late nights coming home. Tonight in the car the movie of choice was "What About Bob" and here is a piece of trivia: it was filmed on Smith Mountain Lake even though the movie is set on Lake Winnepesaukee.

A Special Weekend

This past weekend we had one of those too rare times that is the best stuff memories are made of. Laughter, family, and friends came together with my husband's 50th birthday as the catalyst.

He doesn't care for surprises, so I really needed to be careful. Not too much, but enough to bring joy and a twinkle. Our two adult sons and their girlfriends joined us, along with their dogs, a feature Howie (my husband) definitely could have done without...He isn't too much of an animal guy. But we all had a great time. His younger sister also flew down from MA, and that was a surprise he enjoyed. They grew up summering together on Lake Winnepesaukee in NH and now we are continuing the lake tradition, only now the lake we go to is Smith Mountain Lake inVA. In addition there were two other adult couples to share the fun with.

The highlight of the weekend was participating in the Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon, which I am happy to report, we both survived. As soon as I figure out how to post photos, I will! We both participated (notice I didn't say competed) in the Tri and I enjoyed it, so now we will be training for the next one.

But what really made this weekend special was hanging out with the guys; we rarely get to see our two sons together these days and the time we shared swimming, boating, playing games, howling at the movie, "What About Bob" filmed on Smith Mt. Lake, but set ironically enough on Lake Winnepesaukee all made for the creation of cherished memories.

The weekend was a keeper!