Grivendell II

Saturday and Monday we had access to a neighbor's  paddleboat, slide and 'diving board', that the kids had a blast on. After jumping off the paddleboat for awhile, they wanted to try out the big slide, so we paddled the boat over, and they got on the floating dock. After wetting the slide, they started shooting off of there, yelling and laughing as they tried going down different ways.

They finally braved the tall diving board, and with some sweet encouragement from her brothers, even Grace went off it. They loved cannonballs, or pretending they were astronauts walking into space, or strolling in the park and off the board. The force of the water breaking was so strong Grace ended up with her forearms covered in tiny bruises from smacking the water! Aubree went out on the boat with us, and while she wasn't a fan of the life jacket, she laughed and giggled at the kids splashing into the water and clapping for them.

On Monday a neighbor also let them use their water trampoline and launcher. RD took the three kids out there, and while they struggled to figure out how to slide out to the end of the launcher without falling off, they were getting some good air, in between the frequent slides into the lake. Brian came out too, and there was some pretty crazy flipping going on. Grace got flipped and landed on her head, and decided she was done soon afterward. It was fun to watch, but looked too crazy for me to be tempted.

 Grace caught a little frog, named it 'Froggy' and played with it most of the rest of the day. RD spotted 'Froggy' in the wood pile after our fire, and 'Froggy' stayed a pastime while we were there. Other frogs also came onto the deck and the 2-and-unders were fascinated.

A bunch of people took turns on the kayaks and paddleboats, and hung out on the beach with the little kids. There was a bit of splashing water, throwing sand, and some falls into the water, but all the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Having a beach so convenient is awesome.