Kicking off a new season with thunder, rain, Red Brew and a water rescue.

As history will tell us, Memorial Day weekend weather at the Happy Place stinks.
And sure enough, this year started out rainy and thundery and cool (and shame on me for being surprised and disappointed).

Saturday was a wash - literally - but when we weren't I wasn't being grumpy about not getting to be out on the lake we found a few things to do.

Husband entertained us by practicing his scales and arpeggios.  

I continued working on my never-ending crochet project.  One day all these squares will be attached together to make a fabulous throw.  I estimate I'll need about 50 - 60 of them.
Currently I have completed 15 (hence the term 'never-ending').

We played Thing 2's new favorite game - LIFE Twists and Turns.  Like the old game of LIFE on steroids.  Plus, you don't have to ever do any math or count any money so that's enough reason for me to play.  I'm thinking of getting a t-shirt made with the slogan, "I'm a LOSER in the game of Life" and whenever we play the loser has to wear it the next day without getting to explain what it means (of course, I could make one that says, "I'm a WINNER in the game of Life" but that just isn't as funny to our slightly twisted family). 

And FYI, the Life Loser in this game was me.

And, of course, we had to go into town for the BEST PIZZA in the WORLD (and in case you think I'm exaggerating, every single visitor we've ever taken there agrees with me...even my mama who just had pizza in Italy) and a tall Rafferty's Red Brew (favorite favorite favorite).
We seriously go at least once (often twice) every weekend in the summer.
It's why I run. 

Cheers! to a brand new season!

And after a night of pouring rain and booming thunder that made me jump clear over to Husband's side of the bed in one springy leap, Sunday started cool and cloudy...

...but happily turned into a sunny and warm and lovely Lakey kind of a day.

(Of course it was also muggy from all that rain...but here in Minnesota you take what you get and don't throw a fit)

Husband making his first fishing attempt of the summer.
He came to the conclusion that there must not be any fish in the lake yet.

Made ourselves useful for an hour and built an Adirondack tete-a-tete to replace the ugly old bench on the dock. The colors make me happy.  

We painted them last month when we were up here (remember this fun story?). 

Husband and I had a fiercely competitive game of Bocce ball. He won (on a technicality and because he cheats. Okay, I might be lying but I totally had him until HE brought out a tape measure to see who was closer. Told you we were competitive).

Thing 2 and her BFF (who has a cabin 10 min. from ours so they get to spend even more time together than they already do) enjoying an afternoon cruise.

The lake isn't quite warm enough yet to take a full body plunge, but soon....soon.

While out on sunset cruise, Husband catches 3 fish (which is like 2 more than he caught all 

summer last year). 

Declares this season a success already. 

Fish disagree.

And here's a fun story and one for the memory books - we made our first water rescue.
Saved 2 teenage boys who'd capsized their canoe.  Okay, saved might be an exaggeration, but we certainly helped them out of a bad situation (and 'saved' makes this story sound much more exciting).

We'd been floating in the reeds, Husband fishing, Thing 1 lying on the boat, eyes closed, listening to her One Direction playlist with earbuds for the 85,000th time, Thing 2 and BFF pulling lily-pads out of the water (and repeatedly letting us know they would blame each other if by some chance the lake police came and arrested them), me reading about how JLo got her body bikini ready while I was motoring my way through a package of Chips Ahoy, when we heard a boy scream, "GET ME A F**KING BUCKET!!!"
Well, that got everyone's attention.
Me: That boy has a potty mouth!
Thing 2: What did he say? What letter did it start with??
BFF: I thought he said 'bucket'.
Me: Uh...yeah....sure...that's what he said.
Thing 1 (laughing hysterically): I think he said 'duck bucket'....'ducking bucket?'.

By now all the girls think this is ducking hilarious, and as we continue to hear the boys use more ducky words (and keep in mind they were too far away for us to really see that they were in a compromising position of being in the freezing cold lake holding on to dear life to their canoe...we aren't that heartless) we made up new funny phrases using the word 'ducky' and I continued to make fun of the fact that they sounded like they were in trouble.

And then I heard a distinct, "HELP!! BRING THE PONTOON OVER HERE!"

Not sure if they were talking to us, but quickly realizing their ducky vocabulary wasn't just for fun, we zoomed over and found 2 shivering boys clinging to their over-turned canoe and muttering about how "Grandma's gonna kill us".
We threw them a rope and towed them back to their cabin (just to be clear, we did offer to have them climb aboard and dry off...while Thing 1 - who happily discovered them to be cute teenage boys - contemplated ripping off her sweatshirt and offering it to them.....wrapping them in body heat....stroking their hair...) which was really only like 50 yards away.
Rescue mission - accomplished.
You're welcome, boys.
Next time you decide to jump out of your canoe at the same time.....ducking don't.


And before the severe weather hit and we were pounded with buckets of rain (yet again) and hours of thunder and lightning, we got this -

The first sunset of the season.
Makes me happy.Makes me relaxed.Makes me so exited for summer.