martha's birthday sister weekend at gardom lake day 2

i woke up early again.  my lips were still intact.  quite a few people thought i got up and put on new lip stuff.  amy was up since 5:50 and was quite exuberant about having already had a cup of coffee.  which andrea noted she climbed over a sleeping mom to make for her.  nevertheless her and bethany gleefully escaped camp to go on a morning jaunt to town.  we got them to pick up some ice for my cooler on the way back.  breakfast ensued much like the day before.  katie and i always split smoothies so that we got half of each flavour.  when handed her 'pb ban' sarah handed hers back.  "no i want a peanut butter banana".  she refused to acknowledge pb ban as a legit.  less people had smoothies on this day.  this is also the day mom kicked me off her cooler which had been the perfect seat.

the day was supposed to be  cold and cloudy but it started out sunny and and moved on to sunny with cloud.  not bad at'all.  this time on our lake trip, we had the dory in the back.  bethany and i were the only ones in the van and everyone else walked.  bethany and i carried down the row boat with the paddle board back packs on our backs and our stuff inside.  by the time we made it to the first bench the fingers of my left hand started to shake uncontrollably.

things were forgotten so amy pumped the paddle board while i tried to help katie fix the oar and bethany went back for things.  then amy and i were swimming and katie was helping bethany on the board.  she went past us in a straight line.  "are you going to turn?" i asked as she passed us in a rigid line.  "i can't!" she growled between clenched teeth.  amy and i laughed that she was going in a wobbly bee-line and that's when she fell off.  she blamed in on the bee-line comment but got back on.  her and katie took a trip around.  soon martha came bobbling up on her bobbling blue and mom, sarah and andrea could be seen from shore getting into the row boat.  mom had on a big floppy wide brimmed hat and a colourful pink bathing suit cover. she looked very cute and picturesque in the  row boat.  with all of them in the boat it sat quite low in the water.  andrea's oar broke.  then she broke sarah's  so they paddled with very short oars and went in a lot of circles and laughed a lot.  we all headed for the stairs.  amy swam over from the dock across from the stairs and martha slowly bobbed her way there.  once all there we climbed out and walked the path around the island.  mom waited at a picnic table and didn't go the whole way.  bethany let martha wear her shoes because martha's flip flops were cutting in between the toes. mom was impressed with bethany's generosity and as we walked bethany said how mom always thinks she's better than she is and it makes her mad.  i said moms can't help but think their kids are amazing just like she saw her own kids.  then katie told the story about that time she told me i just saw her through love goggles and i said what kind of goggles are you looking at yourself with?  we all need to look at ourselves with love goggles.  i need my own advice.  it's hard to do sometimes.  i wonder why our go to is self criticism and self-annoyance.  i constantly catch myself thinking mean things about myself and have to conciously change my inner narrative.  anywho we had nice talks as we walked around and when we got back to mom we picked her up again and bethany took my shoes for me and i swam out from there because there were stairs there and it looked nicer than the first stairs and closer to shore.

i was really motivated to make it back to shore before everyone because i wanted to get pictures of them coming in.  i really wanted a pic of mom and sarah and andrea in the row boat but on the way back mom went on katie's paddle board. sat on it gracefully like a queen, and sarah and andrea went straight across to the dock, as did martha and amy.  so i just got pics of katie and mom on the board and a quick one of bethany reaching shore.  then i did some fun pics of the twins in the water.  sarah and andrea went back to get lunch ready and the rest of us swam a bit more.  bethany dove off the board again and i took pictures with my eyes.

lunch was much the same.  this time there were plums.

after lunch we went to visit bosenka for tea.  she made us peppermint and ginger teas in cute mugs and served us a really delicious trifle.  like the custard was sooooooo goooooood.  we looked at her art and her story for luna, and bethany and amy played her piano.  it was a nice time.  after we left i don't remember what we did.  just that i was too full and feeling sleepy.

i do know that after a while me and katie and bethany and amy went on a walk.  i took them on the trail that lead to my outhouse. the place i escaped to to have a good dump in privacy.  there is a baseball field there.  it seems like it's in the middle of nowhere.  we took these pics:  

 then we decided to do some slo-mo vids on amy's phone. great hilarities ensued.  there were chest bumps, running, hair shaking, jumping and karate fights. we amused ourselves greatly.  we arrived back in time to stand guard while sarah sprinted after the sheep hearding them to their pen.  then

andrea, mom, martha and sarah did a fabulous dinner of salad rolls and chicken satay.  we ate it on a huge board resting on saw horses by candle light.  there was lots of eating and talking and passing back and forth.

after dinner we congregated in the trailer and hung out a while before playing a game of telephone pictionary.  katie was reluctant but agreed to play once deciding she would do the same picture every time.  andrea needed more cajoling but eventually she wedged herself between us and we played.  it was fun and funny and the one that dissolved all of us into gales of hilarity, the one that made us laugh until we ached and so hard we couldn't breath, the one that made me personally fall into hysterics, was a picture drawn by amy.  it cannot be fully explained nor described but lets just say that she read that brent had a rooster tail and drew him with an actual rooster's tail...this combined with the trunk like necks and blank serious expressions was too much for us.  we totally lost it and it was good. 

this is also when we had sarah's amazing blackberry white chocolate cheese cake.  which was just too lip smackingly perfect.  people were also signing martha's card.  we broke up and went to bed reluctantly knowing it was our last night together.

sarah and i still had some cabin fever left over and when bethany came out to use the washroom which now had a curtain around it made out of sarongs, we called out to her "bethany! we're watching youuuuuuuuuu!" over and over until she gratifyingly told us we were creepy.  having had that success we did it to several more people before settling down to sleep.