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Weekend at the cottage
Jun. 8th, 2009 10:22 amThis past weekend the kids and I, and my mom and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sandykidd, went out to our family's summer cottage. It was the first time this year for me and the kids. They, of course, had a blast.
It all started with a flat-tire episode, which was highly annoying, especially given the timing (i.e. I was already stressed out over how long it had taken us to get ready, and then we finally got everything and everyone into the car and pulled away from the curb all ready to set out for cottage, and...that horrible grinding noise/sensation. Ugh!! Plus I ended up having to go to the shady fixit place that I don't trust, because the one I do trust was closed. So it cost me $100 for a new tire from the shady place, replacing a tire that I just bought a few months ago. I don't even want to think about it. Sigh. But at least it got fixed quickly and once we did actually hit the road, it was smooth sailing.)
Ruthie spent at least the previous 24 hours telling me repeatedly that "I'm not going to go in [the water]" to which I repeatedly replied, "that's okay, you don't have to," while thinking inside my head, "fat chance." Needless to say, within approximately thirty seconds of our arrival at the cottage, she was in the lake up to her neck. ;) And indeed she spent the lion's share of the weekend in the water, most of the time naked. Even when her lips were literally blue with cold, she still refused all my entreaties to put on at least a bathing suit. ("I'm not bathing! I'm just lying in the water!" *facepalm*) She had a great time.
Isaac had fun too although we definitely need to start getting some of his friends out there to play with him. (I had tried, but I need to try harder.) Even with three adults on hand he just couldn't get enough of baseball (not that we have a lot of patience for pitching to him) and anyway we were trying to clean up and stuff. Isaac was a pretty big help with the cleaning too, though. On Sunday my mom's friend Grace came out to help with the weeding and trimming of the vegetation, and Isaac helped a lot with that. He enjoyed raking and bagging leaves, and cutting away branches from the bushes, and so forth.
Mom recently bought a new bunk bed (from IKEA) for the cottage, and the kids loved it. Isaac was very excited to sleep on the top bunk. It brought back fond memories of the timemetafrantic fell off the top bunk there, and he and mom concocted a story involving a bear attack and a rescue from He-Man. Good times! ;) But these newfangled bunk beds they sell nowadays have railings, so falling off would be practically impossible.
We also had an interesting experience with Animal Control. There was a dog that appeared around noon on Sunday and hung around our property for a while. He wasn't terribly interested in us but also wasn't too concerned when we yelled at him to go away. When we got a little closer it became apparent that he had some kind of injury or rash or sores on his face and neck, and he wasn't walking well either. We put down some water in a bucket and he drank it like crazy, despite the fact that he was just a few feet away from a whole lake. After calling around to the neighbors who were around in their yards and finding that no one recognized the dog, we decided to call the police and ask for animal control. It turned out that the neighbors a few houses over had done the same. Eventually the animal-control guy showed up and put the dog in his truck. It was not particularly similar to the "Animal Cops" shows on Animal Planet, of which I have watched quite a few. For one thing, the officers on those shows drive official-type cars with police insignia and specially built-in cages. This guy had a beat-up rusting pickup truck. For another thing, the officers on the shows usually wear neat, tidy uniforms that make them look like cops ... they don't tend to wear ratty shorts and stained "wife-beater" style tank tops, and have a beer in one hand while on the job. ;) Still, the guy seemed to know what he was about, dog-wise, and said that he felt sure the dog was someone's pet and would be claimed, based on its friendly behavior.
So that was exciting. Other than that it was a pretty nice, restful weekend at the cottage with nice weather, and it was kind of a letdown to get home, as usual. Oh well.
And now I have to swing into hyper-party-prep mode, because Isaac's birthday party is Saturday and I have SO MUCH TO DO ZOMG.
sandykidd, went out to our family's summer cottage. It was the first time this year for me and the kids. They, of course, had a blast. It all started with a flat-tire episode, which was highly annoying, especially given the timing (i.e. I was already stressed out over how long it had taken us to get ready, and then we finally got everything and everyone into the car and pulled away from the curb all ready to set out for cottage, and...that horrible grinding noise/sensation. Ugh!! Plus I ended up having to go to the shady fixit place that I don't trust, because the one I do trust was closed. So it cost me $100 for a new tire from the shady place, replacing a tire that I just bought a few months ago. I don't even want to think about it. Sigh. But at least it got fixed quickly and once we did actually hit the road, it was smooth sailing.)
Ruthie spent at least the previous 24 hours telling me repeatedly that "I'm not going to go in [the water]" to which I repeatedly replied, "that's okay, you don't have to," while thinking inside my head, "fat chance." Needless to say, within approximately thirty seconds of our arrival at the cottage, she was in the lake up to her neck. ;) And indeed she spent the lion's share of the weekend in the water, most of the time naked. Even when her lips were literally blue with cold, she still refused all my entreaties to put on at least a bathing suit. ("I'm not bathing! I'm just lying in the water!" *facepalm*) She had a great time.
Isaac had fun too although we definitely need to start getting some of his friends out there to play with him. (I had tried, but I need to try harder.) Even with three adults on hand he just couldn't get enough of baseball (not that we have a lot of patience for pitching to him) and anyway we were trying to clean up and stuff. Isaac was a pretty big help with the cleaning too, though. On Sunday my mom's friend Grace came out to help with the weeding and trimming of the vegetation, and Isaac helped a lot with that. He enjoyed raking and bagging leaves, and cutting away branches from the bushes, and so forth.
Mom recently bought a new bunk bed (from IKEA) for the cottage, and the kids loved it. Isaac was very excited to sleep on the top bunk. It brought back fond memories of the time
metafrantic fell off the top bunk there, and he and mom concocted a story involving a bear attack and a rescue from He-Man. Good times! ;) But these newfangled bunk beds they sell nowadays have railings, so falling off would be practically impossible.We also had an interesting experience with Animal Control. There was a dog that appeared around noon on Sunday and hung around our property for a while. He wasn't terribly interested in us but also wasn't too concerned when we yelled at him to go away. When we got a little closer it became apparent that he had some kind of injury or rash or sores on his face and neck, and he wasn't walking well either. We put down some water in a bucket and he drank it like crazy, despite the fact that he was just a few feet away from a whole lake. After calling around to the neighbors who were around in their yards and finding that no one recognized the dog, we decided to call the police and ask for animal control. It turned out that the neighbors a few houses over had done the same. Eventually the animal-control guy showed up and put the dog in his truck. It was not particularly similar to the "Animal Cops" shows on Animal Planet, of which I have watched quite a few. For one thing, the officers on those shows drive official-type cars with police insignia and specially built-in cages. This guy had a beat-up rusting pickup truck. For another thing, the officers on the shows usually wear neat, tidy uniforms that make them look like cops ... they don't tend to wear ratty shorts and stained "wife-beater" style tank tops, and have a beer in one hand while on the job. ;) Still, the guy seemed to know what he was about, dog-wise, and said that he felt sure the dog was someone's pet and would be claimed, based on its friendly behavior.
So that was exciting. Other than that it was a pretty nice, restful weekend at the cottage with nice weather, and it was kind of a letdown to get home, as usual. Oh well.
And now I have to swing into hyper-party-prep mode, because Isaac's birthday party is Saturday and I have SO MUCH TO DO ZOMG.
