Trip to the Lake

This year we chose a 4-day-a-week schedule for our homeschool. We school Monday through Thursday and take off every Friday. I think we're really going to love it! We can go to theater or ballet performances any time we want and use Friday as a make-up day if we need to. We can enjoy playing with friends after co-op when it meets and not feel like we need to rush home to "do school." We can take advantage of our Fridays to schedule some fun field trips. Plus, it's one less day for Mama to have to prep! ;)

This week we took advantage of our day off and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend.

Ashley (my niece) just moved into their guest apartment while she's going to college, so we got to see "her place" for the first time. It's so cute and young and fun! I would move in, except I'm no longer cute or young or . . . well, I think I'm still fun! (I think?!?) We also got to meet Ashley's cat, Pop, for the first time. Hannah was in L-O-V-E, which means that poor cat didn't get much of a break while we were there!




Mom and Dad have the perfect driveway(s) for bike riding, and the girls always take advantage of it when we visit. They rode bikes on Friday . . .


. . . while Grandpa fried fish for dinner.


Millie never gets too far away when Grandpa is frying fish!


It was insanely hot . . .


. . . but still good to be outside relaxing and enjoying each other's company.


On Saturday morning, we went to visit my grandpa, which is always a bittersweet experience. This time, fortunately, it was more on the sweet side! He just turned 92 years old and he's suffering from the early stages of Alzheimers, but he remembered my name this time without being told! I wish my girls had the chance to know the grandpa I remember from my childhood—the one who fished and hunted, the one who barbecued chicken when we came for a visit, the one who swished the water for you before you got in the bathtub so you would have lots of bubbles and no hot spots or cold spots—but I'm still grateful that they've had a chance to know him and not just hear stories about him.


And before we left, Hannah found a walking stick, which none of us had ever seen in person before.


At first she mistook it for a Daddy Long Legs, but then she saw the body and realized it was something else. I'll never know how she managed to see it while she was playing outside, but I guess that's why she's the one studying entomology in 4-H next year and not me!