In the wee hours—I Blog

It's only a bit after 7 a.m. and K and "the girls" (JJ and KL) have gone fishing on Foster Lake hoping to bring home enough trout for dinner. It was in the plan that K would get up early and make the coffee, go and wake up the girls. Well . . . didn't happen that way!

JJ apparently got up we're guessing about 4:30, and went for a walk with the neighbor's dog, Norman, down to the park and back . . . and pretty soon we here "pssssst, Dad, it's time . . . it's a great time to get up!" Was she anxious or what?

Next thing I know, the polebarn is lit up and the coffee and some cereal has been consumed and they're off.

Now it's up to me to spend the day with JD and CD . . . and they're still sleepy heads snuggled away in their beds in the tent in the woods. It's pretty foggy out and pretty darn cold . . . so I'm thinkin' we'll be hanging out here. I had planned that maybe we'd take a picnic to the lake but it's only going to be in the very low 70s so that's not much fun for swimming in a pretty darn cold lake. It's their last day here so we'll have fun, no matter what we choose to do!

Stay tuned . . . I'll let you know how the day goes.

. . . The boys and I had a blast. CD made a "Jesus (Heart) Me" necklace while the three of us watched Wilderness Family.

JD stringing the beads for his necklace.

JD enjoying the movie in the polebarn.

We swam in the lake, well—JD did. He wanted to swim in the lake so badly before they headed home even though I tried to convince him that it would be way too cold. We drove to the lake, walked down to the beach. . . I set up my chair kickin' myself because I forgot my visor. . .the boys stuck their toes into the water. JD strolled back and forth and declared "It's colder than I thought it would be!" . . . and that was the end of our "lake outing!" McD's for lunch made us forget all about the cold lake water and we headed back home. We tried to spot the fisher-folks out on the lake but we couldn't find them.

Five minutes after we pulled in the driveway the fisher-folks came back. . .empty handed. And CD asked Papa "You skunked?" No fish, but they had a great time. K said that JJ leaned back in her boat-chair, feet up on the side of the boat, and just relaxed and took in the peacefulness of the lake. I think KL might have wished she had brought her book.

An afternoon of tolepainting . . . the kids and JJ painted some beautiful boxes while K took a nap.

KL painting a beautiful box.

CD choosing his colors with care.

A sunburned JJ wanted to paint too!

Later we hiked over to the CCs for some time on their trampoline giving the kids some good exercise. Barbecued chicken for dinner . . . the rest of the Wilderness Family movie while JJ packed up the car ready for a long drive tomorrow...and the day is gone!

It was a great visit. We so love having the Varner-Family-of-Five-Minus-One visit us in our "little piece of heaven" in Oregon. The time flew by way too fast!

Life is good!