Yesterday, you heard from Cher what she spent the weekend doing. Today, I’ll tell you where Brady and I were and what we were doing!
We got away to the lake! 😍Isn’t that wonderful?!
We were gifted the weekend to go and get things set up, kid free. It was SUCH a beautiful, loving, generous gift!! Of course we couldn’t get everything done, but we took a good bite out of it!
First of all, we brought EVERYTHING. MOUNTAINS of stuff!! But, to be fair, we brought EVERYTHING home last year, for fear of mice eating all of our stuff. We are mouse free, and it was time to bring everything back. Five mattresses. A big water jug. A BBQ. Seven pillows. Tubs of miscellaneous items. Kitchen stuff. Tools for the inevitable work we needed to do. Eight new blinds. Blankets, sheets, toiletries, clothes, etc etc etc. Oh and then Brady’s wheelchair, which takes up a LOT of space!! It was ridiculous in there!
Its hard to truly convey how much stuff was in here. You’ll have to take my word for it.
Aaaaanyway, we got on the road nice and early, and grabbed bagels and coffee on the way, as it tradition. It was a really really beautiful drive.
Even just the drive in cleansing! My goodness it was SO nice to be on our way back there!
Once we arrived, friends came to help us unload our gigantic van of gigantic things. It was a (ready?) gigantic help. And because that wasn’t enough, they then came back and delivered our lumber package to our site!
We are officially ready to build the deck! Who wants in?? 🙋♀️
We worked a lot that first day. We put up blinds, and Brady got the water heater working while one of the guys from camp set up our plumbing. I made everyone’s beds, and while they’re not all uniform or tidy, they look cozy. I’ll take cozy off of pretty any day!
My kids aren’t fond of the sleeping bags, so I think they’ll be really excited to have blankets instead!
Once we had worked hard enough, we drove the cart down to the lake and sat in the wind, enjoying the beauty of our surroundings.
We wrapped up the night over a fire and a beer. Cher bought me the prettiest beer she could find! Why is a drink so much more enjoyable when the can is pretty? I don’t know why, but I won’t fight it.
Yes, remember our pink cabinets? They’re still just as pink, and just as pretty! No regrets!
The next morning, we drank coffee and ate brownies for breakfast. It. Was. Awesome.
We had less we could accomplish the next day, so we puttered with the things we could. First, a fire, which was considerably smokier than the one the night before. But we made it happen.
We started talking about laying out the frame of the deck, but there were a big dumb stump in the way. I’ll be honest – we got a little carried away with that. I was quite determined, but my square shovel would have none of it.
Not to mention, I didn’t have a lot of bulk to throw at it…
Then Carrie came with a spade and got pretty invested too. She made WAY more headway than I did. Brady had the axe and was chopping the big roots we were unearthing. But finally, Braden came to save the day, and pulled the thing out with his truck. It was a bit of a debacle, and took probably a confident 2+ hours, but we laughed a lot 🙂 which is often the most important part.
Back to our camper to hide out afterwards. Rest, and eat lunch. Which was chips.
Then we headed back to the water and watched a bunch of poor suckers people put the docks in the lake. It was entertaining, and we didn’t even have to feel guilty because we don’t have a boat, and therefore no obligation to help. Also, paraplegia. Win! Disability “benefits.”
The goal of productivity after lunch was well intentioned, but short lived. We measured out where we want the deck to be built, and laid out boards so we could really visualize it. But at that point of the day, Brady needed to take one of his medications that tends to knock him on his butt. So he did. And it did.
Brady napped for about 45 minutes, and I crocheted for about 40 minutes. Then I noted a big mistake I had made in my work and pulled it aaaaall out. It was around that time I decided it was time to get things packed up for the week. Brady had only wanted to nap for a half hour anyway, so I started moving around, and he lulled shortly thereafter.
The gross majority of what we brought stayed at the camper, thank goodness. We brought home our own bags of clothing and such, though I forgot the laundry there. Whoops! We moved the tools for the deck build into the camper, so they’re there and ready to go. We closed all the blinds and turned everything off. We parked the golf cart off to the side so the deck area could be cleared. We locked and loaded up, which – let me tell you – did NOT take as long as loading up on the way there! Oy!
It was a bummer to leave, but we will be back soon!! I can’t wait!! I’m pretty sure the sun misses us…