a day at cultus lake

they had a roast chicken, buns, a bag of cheesies and some cherries. they set up at a picnic table in the shade of some trees. she spread out her sleeping bag on the grass in front. she  began the task of sunscreen slathering and her mom went to the washrooms to change into her suit.  the other tables near by started filling up.

katie was late.  they were late too, but katie was later.  after the work of slathering was done, they sat in their chairs and watched the antics of the geese who were lunching on the tender grass. "you have grasss hanging from your mouth," said her mom to a goose who came quite close.  it was eyeing their bag of cherries but they were not sharing with the geese. 

she felt impatient. the lake, the sunny day the freedom. enjoy this moment, she said to herself. you are right, she answered back to herself, and promptly began testing her mom on all her memorizations. the provinces/territories and capitals, the apostles in order, the church presidents in order, the articles of faith. 

an hour later katie and her two red-head-ginger-breads arrived. so they ate and heard tales of katie's recent visit to pioneer, their dad's birth place, now a ghost town. more sunscreen slathering. pumping up the paddle boards...in the midst of this her mom escaped to the lake with her noodle floaty and malachi was on her tail. 

the lake.  the object of her desire.  no more time to waste she was up and trotting across the grass, on to the beach and into the water in the blink of an eye.  the water was cool but not cold and the drop off was steep. without much ado she dove in.  lovely. 

her mom was chest deep jogging on the spot. for a while she played with malachi, he'd swim the few strokes to her and she'd shove him back towards shore. then she swam out over her head to the count of 100 and back. she didn't feel as strong in her surgical foot kicks, but otherwise felt great.

katie and elizabeth came with their paddle boards. malachi was installed on katie's and they paddled out past the buoys. she swam of course. malachi transfered to elizabeth's board and katie rolled into the lake. this was how they did things. 

they went back for the jogging grandmother. there was a kerfuffle getting he properly installed in her noodle chair which involved big waves, rocking her back and forth while she was straining to get her other leg into the hole. katie took charge and soon righted the situation.  elizabeth was towing gramma who created a substantial drag. she also kept letting go.  katie once again took over.  

once past the buoys again they began to play. katie and elizabeth did 'mermaid dives' off their boards and were given a score based on entrance, tail flip, and 'outcome' (an elizabeth term meaning coming up out of the water).  they kept adding to the requirements. "if you came out of the water with your arms up that would be worth .5 more points", they'd say.  "if you came out of the water with your arms up and singing like ariel, that would be worth even more."  "if you did all that but we could hear you singing under water as you came up that would be 15 points out of 10". it all culminated with the idea of elizabth mermaid diving off the board through her aunt's legs and coming up singing like ariel for a total of 30 points. elizabeth promptly did a face plant and tipped her board over but after lots of laughs and falling off her board one more time she was successful.

after all this hilarity they headed back to shore, dropped off the kids and the mother/gramma and only katie returned with her out to the deep.  katie paddled and she swam.  they decided to head towards a boat which had an intriguing looking foamie/floaty attached to it.  they talked and laughed and went so far out the shore was a faint and distant line behind them. all there was was the lake, the sky and them. katie rolled in.  they swam a while talking and then began swimming back. and it was like it had always been for them since they were children.

when they got back they were suprised to find out it was five thirty.  they had been in the lake at least 2.5 hours and the time had just slid by like it was water. they had to get back for an even hospital visit with her dad, so they packed up quickly and left.

by 8 they were sitting with her dad in his spacious hospital room as the light was low. a lady yelled in the hallway. he had been sleeping and was drowsily cozy. they sang rounds like they always had.