Corner of Central Florida: Sunday thru Tuesday (last week of course)

More running! Hurry up Grandpa.

I thought jogging approximately three days a week since February would mean that I'd be able to water ski without too much trouble last week. I was wrong. Very wrong. My legs, back, and arms were very confused last Sunday at why they were sitting in Smith Lake, why I was trying to hold onto a rope attached to a very powerful boat, and couldn't seem to figure out how to use a slalom ski. After the third try, I started asking my father to throw me a second ski. Of course, being my father, he refused and just kept saying one more time. My uncle kept yelling "Keep your eyes open" (I have contacts and always close my eyes while being pulled up) and "point the ski at the back of the boat". He was right of course, but all I could think was "Wow. My body has completely forgotten how to do this. It's not like riding a bike!"

I already love you! You're my new favorite cousin P!

I finally made it up and managed to hold on until we reached the pier, where I got to look like I knew what I was doing in front of Squirms who was sitting with her father on the pier waving at mommy. I was deeply happy that I did actually ski; but the revelations I had about the physical abilities of my body while trying to get up are going to haunt me.

No. 1

If, at age 16, I had considered whether I'd be a better skier than my father when I was 31 and he was 59, I probably would have assumed that Yes, I would be able to create a spray just as tall as he does, and probably stay up longer. My 16 year old self would have been wrong. My almost-sixty year old father is still a better skier than me. Watching him slalom, I was just as impressed as when I was a little girl - back and forth, the tallest spray I've ever seen. The only change seemed to be a bit of a grimace on his face when he crossed the wake.

Great Grandpa and the Great at Bear Creek

Besides my life evaluations while attempting to ski, there were other lovely things that happened last Sunday. The Great had his first visit to Bear Creek No. 1, the church where my grandpa grew up and where the family gathers each year to bring flowers for graves and visit with each other.

I'll have to contract Aunt H to do Squirm's future birthday parties.

And we celebrated my cousin's high school graduation and college plans. Aunt H had a Martha Stewart-worthy table spread, with a delicious strawberry cake, chocolate chip cookies with very good chocolate chips (the remainders of which I finished on our Tuesday lake visit), and other treats. She also had made frames and a place for us to write notes for GEP (the graduate). GEP has plans to go on two different mission trips this summer so I felt my note didn't need to include lots of wisdom, just encouragement.

Kisses, kisses everywhere!

We spent Monday at my parents house, R and I relaxed while everyone else chased the kids around. Granny came to visit us and rocked the Great to sleep. Monday night my man took me to Birmingham, just the two of us, for dinner and a stay at the hotel where we stayed the night of our wedding. Tuesday marked eight years of marriage and he surprised me with a photo album with eight pictures (one from each year) and a bronze cuff stamped with the longitude and latitude of where he proposed. I am considering writing a "How to be a Great Husband" book - just a journal of his daily actions.

First boat ride!

Tuesday we were back at the lake, enjoying Auntie L's day off work. This time I used two skis, and waited until the end of the day to try - since I could barely walk from the soreness due to Sunday's attempts, I was pleased that I got back into the water. I re-discovered that R can slalom, by dropping a ski!, and we learned that Squirms now loves to "go slimming", or swimming as most speaking the english language call it.

Borrowing Gran's visor

Whew. This post is getting long and we've only made it to Tuesday. We thoroughly enjoyed dad's new boat - I was surprised by how fast it is - and got to introduce the children and R to the giant fish at Rock Creek. I'll stop now to avoid being too mushy about how beautiful and peaceful and colorful and calming and pure the lake is, and just post more pictures.