Eight Point Lake '17, Pt. II

(contd.)

Friday

July 21st
"Rowley Reunion"

Apparently I was the second one up this morning - Brian White beat me to the punch for some fishing off the dock. 

Blake and Bradley laid out some kind of catfish trap the night before - not entirely sure what that entailed - and when Bradley woke up and checked his wares this morning, he found this sum'bitch.

Alayna requested this picture with the dog.  We get this a lot.

The Whites brought their dog, Duke, up to the Cottage, so we had three dogs on hand throughout the week.  This chaotic scene you see here is when Duke waded into the lake and caught a frog, which the other two dogs (shown here) were incredibly jealous of.

Bradley was good enough to take it from Duke before the dog could eat it.

Duke returns to a Hero's Welcome

Taking a break on the swing - Kris' favorite Cottage past time.

Dad came back Thursday evening, and brought along his Sea Doo boat, which is a little more sensitive to drive, but a hell of a lot faster than Brian's boat.

Coming back from taking the girls out around the lake

As mentioned before, Bryan was able to fly in this year, so he showed up today and shortly thereafter decided to run straight off the dock and into the lake, along with the nephews (and nearly tripping over Watson in the process.)

A second go at the running leap. . .

. . . then on to the swimming platform.

Abby just happened to be out there to hang out - definitely not the sort of kid you'd want to throw out into a lake.

Brian offered to take Kris and the girls on the way to the Sandbar in the afternoon.  Even at a relatively chill speed, Alayna wasn't a big fan, so after about two minutes of tubing we pulled Alayna back into the boat and set off once again.

Unlike her sister, Abby loved tubing.  As is evident from this series of pics.

We anchored at the Sandbar and found that an old high school buddy of mine, Matt Lee, and some of his relatives were already up there.  So we caught up with them and hung out while Kris and the girls swam about in the shallows.

Lee and his clan depart the Sandbar

After Brian threw him deep into the muck of a lily-pad cluster, Bradley emerged like a pissed-off Swamp Thing.

(Abby personally requested this picture be taken.)

Total chaos ensues as Abby and the White Brothers do a few laps around the lake on the way back from the Sandbar. . .

I told Brian not to take it easy on Abby, even though she was relatively new at tubing, because she was having so much fun. 

While Abby enjoyed the ride, the boys spent most of the time trying to knock one another off the tube. . . which isn't surprising at all.

Cousin Blake to the rescue.

Bradley goes down.

Back to the Cottage after whipping the bejesus out of the kids.

Indoor wind-down time after an afternoon of swimming and boating.

Another swim session in the lake.  The weather today pretty much demanded it.

Watson, doing what he does best.

Preparing for dinner.  Always good to have a former chef on hand for just such an ocassion.

Some Brians, grilling.

We ate the holy hell out of this steak. . .

Safe to say we usually don't eat this good at home.  Probably one of the main reasons we all gained weight up at the Lake this year. . .

Some after-dinner shenanigans on Dad's boat.  The weather was started to grow more overcast as the evening progressed, so as some kids began winding down, others opted to bust out fishing poles. . .

Pretty sure this is illegal.

This is honestly the only time my kids ever go fishing.  No one in our family is big on fishing (too boring for our taste), so we annually take advantage of the cache of kiddie fishing poles they keep up at the Cottage so the girls can fish.

This is the only thing that was brought out of the lake this evening, courtesy of Abby.  I'm not a fishologist, so I have no idea what type of fish this is.  It'd probably equate to roughly half a fishstick, though.

- Brian