Last week was the 2015 Brown family Lakecation, that exciting time of year when 18 of the greatest people in the world converge on Lake Tapps, Washington for a week of pure recreation. We kicked off the week in the best way: my youngest sister Mel went through the temple for the first time in preparation for her upcoming mission to Cambodia. All of the Brown parents, sibs, and spouses were there minus one, and to say that it was wonderful is an understatement. Temple + Family = JOY. We may or may not have done a family group hug in the celestial room.
True to the Lakecation tradition, we took hundreds of pictures. It was quite the feat to sort through them and pick the cream of the crop to share with my adoring public, ha ha. This year I decided to review the Lakecation in 4 prepositional phrases:
in the house
in the lake
in the cart
in the yard
IN THE HOUSE
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| waaaah! We need more sleep! |
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| zzzzzz |
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| We corralled the babies. |
Amber turned 8 months old.
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| I made a feeble effort at taking a girl cousin picture. |
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| Meal planning late at night: serious business. |
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| GAMES! |
FOOD!
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| COUSINS! Loud cousins! |
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| Amber worked on her crawling technique, inspired no doubt by her agile cousin AmyJane. |
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| Puzzles and GAMES with Grama! |
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| We parked the babies on the counter. AmyJane showed Amber how to crawl, and Amber showed AmyJane how to EAT. Amber may be six weeks younger than her cousin, but she is already bigger. |
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| We decided that AmyJane is a pixie and Amber is a cherub. They had a cousin tea party. Bring your own binky! |
IN THE LAKE
As usual, I declined participation in high speed motor boat activities, successfully supressing the brief urge to attempt wakeboarding with memories of faceplants and water wedgies of my younger years. But the others enjoyed it!
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| Mel, with the graceful dismount |
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| Alivia wins my favorite lake picture this year--she looks so excited to have gotten UP on the wakeboard. As a first-time-lakecationer, she sure acted like a seasoned Brown kid. |
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| Mt. Rainier in the background. So scenic. |
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| As usual, Aunt Mel was awesome. |
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| Steve learned to kayak by himself this year. I enjoyed some kayaking too. It's such a tranquil way to travel. |
IN THE CART
We had several excursions to various stores to gather supplies to feed the crew, and who can resist double babies in a shopping cart? Based on the number of pictures we took of them, we sure couldn't! I gained a new respect for my twin-bearing friends when I tried lifting two babies at once. It's a balancing act for sure!
An epic Costco trip.
Then there was Target.
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| These girls! Amber kept stealing AJ's binky. |
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| And a little bit of Winco action. |
IN THE YARD
Trampoline, whiffle ball, basketball, pickle ball, golf, archery, picnics--it all happened in the yard.
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| Hitting golf balls into the lake is oddly satisfying. Lake Tapps is a reservoir and it's drained in the winter, so it's easy to retrieve the golf balls...later. |
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| Picnic lunch. |
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| Double duty on the seesaw. |
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| Attack the Unk on the tramp! Brad was such a good sport. I risked getting on the trampoline with the kids once and it was pure chaos with lots of dog piles. |
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| CHASE-FACE! |
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| It got cloudy and cool for the last two days of the week. Sweet relief. |
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| Driveway pickle ball! |
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| Can you feel the tranquility? Early morning is the lake at its best. |
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| There were a few trips to a nearby park for pickle ball until the brothers set up a net in the driveway. |
Archery with Grama Meri!
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| Family 4th of July dinner! |
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| We played boys vs. girls in backyard whiffle ball and guess who triumphed? |
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| Cute little hummingbird. |
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| I love these folks. |
HURRAH FOR ANOTHER GREAT LAKECATION!
