The Daily Hailey

As promised, here are pictures from yesterday’s day at the lake! We took close to 200 but I narrowed them down to 40-ish. If you don’t have the “Layout” app, its worth looking at. Just a very simple app that combines your pictures and makes it a touch easier to share more pictures in less space 😉 Its all a lie, basically. But it works in my favor, so I use it. Aaaaanyway…

First! A shoutout to my husband, who took it upon himself to pull out his phone and take pictures. He doesn’t often think of it, which is fine because I’m usually pretty on top of it. But I was not yesterday, and he jumped on it. Thank you, Brady <3

There’s so rarely a picture of the photographer, so there you have it!

Now, forgive me in advance. I’m going to try to post these pictures in order, but airdropping them onto my laptop mixed them up viciously, and then loading them onto my wordpress account stirred them up further, so I make no promises. I’m doing my best!

First, this is everyone getting ready to leave. It was a bit overcast and windy, hence the hoodies, but they were super happy to get on the road! Seriously, I recommend everyone road trip with my kids. They’re super cute travel buddies.

Our first stop was the playground. We brought beach toys and swimwear but it was SO windy down by the water, that hoodies went on and came off with the sun. There was no loss there, though. Our kids LOVE the big playground at the lake!

At one point, Laela went down this slide no problem, her feet hit the ground, and she completely barrelled forward. She landed directly on her face, literally juuust scraping the top of her nose and her top lip. Her knees were both white and scratched, and the front of her hoodie was grey. She was SO upset, and had a big long cry. I could not convince her to go down again, but minutes later, she did it all by herself. I understand not wanting an audience when doing something that makes you nervous. I was so proud of her for being so brave.

This is Rowan and his new friend, Emma. On one hand, I wish I had a closer picture of them, but on another hand, she’s not my kid so this is probably best. She was SO sweet to him. He insists she was the best part of Waskesiu yesterday, without hesitation. He told her his name was Toby, though, haha! Weirdo.

While the big kids played, Brady and I hung with Solly at a bench, so he could play in the sand and shuffle around us. He was in his element in the sun and the wind.

He really couldn’t have been happier. 💙

When the kids started to wander towards the water, Brady went with them and got some amazing modelicious pictures of them. I tried to narrow the pictures down to a reasonable amount, but its a shame because there were SO many beautiful ones from his phone. But alas, I chose the favorites and that’ll just have to work.

My new favorite picture of Dekker!! <3

Laela was being all sneaky and bailed on the group, but she has a good daddy.

I went to the water once everyone else had tired of it, but I wasn’t alone for long.

Once we finally cold-heartedly broke of Rowan’s date with Emma, we headed to the restaurant for lunch. It was a yummy win. Everyone was happy to sit and rest and eat. Some of them were suuuper sweaty…

And sunscreeny!

Found this gem in my onion rings 🙂 Can’t leave it out!

Ice cream happened directly after lunch. I wasn’t sure if that was a good idea, because our kids have pretty good self control, and they won’t usually wolf down dessert if they don’t have room for it. But they had eaten well, and almost everyone finished their ice cream! Not Rowan, but he doesn’t usually go for sweets, so it wasn’t too surprising. Plus, his ice cream was apparently supposed to taste like Superman, so I can see that might’ve been off-putting. It was lovely to watch every single kid in our family offer every single family member a taste of their ice cream! 🍨

Ro preferred to rub the ice cream on his face or through his hair. But hey, to each their own.

We took another short walk after lunch, and made a special spot in the sand for Jamin. I wish we had taken a bit more time and made it a bit more clear, but the reality of life with children is that sometimes the timeline is just a bit short, and thats ok. Still felt nice.

Solly was getting super hyper and teasing his daddy, trying to wiggle down and wanting to go. So we went.

We attempted to take a couple of family pictures on our way out. None of them were quite perfect, though a couple “turned out” in their own way. 😉

The day at the lake was good for my heart, and seemingly for the hearts of my family as well. We’re all trying. We sure love each other a heck of a lot.

I hope you all enjoy a day today that brings some refreshment to you and those you love.