The summer is coming to an end – only a few days left! But here we are – holding tightly to those summer days and nights. This particularly Friday night, just a few days before summer’s end, we were so fortunate to be invited over to Ms. Freeda’s Lakeside Resort for some swimming, fun, and of course – hot dogs. Yum!
I mean, the initial plan was going out on Deb and Jared’s newly purchased boat… but as it happens, Jared already gets the opportunity to do some serious boat repair – apparently he’s going to rebuild the carburetor. Wow! But as plans may sometimes go sideways – good friends, fine company, and a lakeside dock will almost always certainly provide a great time. And it definitely did!
At first, Amy and I tried to set up along the shoreline with the intent of letting sweet Rowan do the “lake experience” as he always has – by walking directly into the water from shore and doing various exciting things like taking handfuls of mud and dirt to wash off in the water and, of course, the favorite “Throwing rocks” fun.
We quickly realized, however, that the area near the edge of the lake was just too muddy to really enjoy like some of the other beaches around Lanier. We needed to change our method and introduce something new to Rowan – being comfortable swimming in the deep!
Truly – he handled it better than we had expected! His little life jacket certainly did the work we had hoped for but he almost exclusively wanted poor Meagan to hold him! They had only met a few times prior to this – talk about building some quick trust! In fact, he was so adamant about Meagan being his only protector that he was often throwing up his hand and saying “no” to both Amy and I. Bah!
It was totally okay though – Meagan was a fantastic sport and was clearly understanding of the plight of a soon-to-be three year old. Her sweet daughter Lyla had just turned three a few weeks ago! It did get a bit dicey at the end of the time – another lesson learned for Mom and Dad. Don’t be in the water too late when it’s mid-September!
Ultimately the cold was a bit more than we expected – it wasn’t that terrible in the water. But as we tried to get out, Rowan desperately wanted to get back in and then we had to make the long trek up to the house to get him dry and warm again. We definitely had a parenting lesson on making sure the kiddo stays warm after getting out of the water! But youngsters are resilient and things ended up just fine – even better when we were able to move on to some fun games and great food and company. Our many thanks to our great hosts, Ms. Freeda and Deb – seen below in Ms. Freeda’s favorite spot. We are so grateful to have spent time at their home and hope we get to visit again soon!
