The Lake House

No, we don't have a lake house or a cabin or any kind of get-away other than the tent we sometimes pitch in our backyard.  I can only imagine what it would be like to have a real home away from home.  Actually, we don't have to try too hard to imagine since our good friends, Lance and Kelly and kids, invited us for an overnight at Lance's parent's lake house.
Some friends of ours from church made a group reservation for 10 rooms at The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA, so a large number of families went down on a recent holiday (teacher workdays are good for something!).  More about that part of the trip later, but before we got there we went with Kelly and Lance to the lakehouse for an overnight.

It was their daughter's birthday, so we started out with some pizza and cake.  The two year olds - Samuel and William - wanted those candles so bad!

 After punting the little kids to bed, we sat up until way too late playing card games together.  We were all pretty bad.  It was one of those games where you have to bluff, and I'm terrible at that.

 The next morning started off with delicious homemade banana pancakes made by Lance.



And what goes better with a leisurely vacation morning at a lake house than a freezing cold polar bear plunge!  It was in the 20's outside.  I don't know the temperature of the water, but it took the kids' breath away.  For a play by play, please scroll through the following pictures:

 

 Aaaah!

 

 Joe was super-human and stayed in the water to make sure the boys were okay when they jumped in.  Aaron decided against the deck jump, and opted to jump off the platform instead.  The water was just as cold!

  

There was a bit of almost-hyperventilating going on!
Dan didn't want to be left behind, but was even less sure of the jump, so he held onto the railing.  Joe kept having to tell him to hurry up and jump before he (Joe) got hypothermia!

 His face says it all!
Here's the back of the lake house, with Dan scurrying for a warm shower.

 Joshua had a bad cold and cough, so he got out of the frozen festivities and hung out in the house.  Maggie and Dan meanwhile ate something funny and suddenly started growing and growing...

Okay, they really just discovered the little playhouse and had fun running around in it for a while.
 
Then to top it all off, Lance took the kids and Joe on a freezing ride around Lake Anna in the pontoon.  It was fun, but quite cold.

After all of those good times at the lake, we were off to more adventures at Great Wolf Lodge.  Thank you Kelly and Lance for a great mini-vacation.  We'll be dropping hints all summer long.