Eight Point Lake '21, Pt. II

 (contd.)

The next morning, Alayna and Sophie got up early and decided they were going to kayak across the entirety of lake in order to reach the sandbar.  Had there been speeding boats out on the water, no one would've been cool with this, but it was pretty quiet on the lake this early in the morning - only motionless fishing boats dotting the surface - so as long as they wore life jackets we were okay with it.  

After the girls returned from their kayak adventure, the sandbar seemed like the coolest place on the lake to the kids.  So I more or less became a shuttle service for the four girls for the next half hour:  I'd load the front compartment of the jet ski up with waters, towels, balls (and even my waterproof bluetooth speaker) and shuttle kids over, two at a time.

Even brought the ol' ball and chain out - it was the first time she had been on the jet ski this weekend.

A lot of the sandbar's prolific trees have fallen down over the course of the last few years.  Not sure if that has to do with the lake's low waterline this year or what.

After the girls had been at the sandbar for an hour or so, I began ferrying people back (doing obligatory donuts along the way, of course.)  Before Chris and his family showed up, I helped dad string up the deck lights so folks could see after it became dark out.

If it's one thing this family does well, it's Bloody Mary drinkin' at the lake.

The Whites arrived before Chris and his family did, and shortly thereafter Brian's boat was tranformed into a giant swimming/diving platform for all the kids.

Jill and Kris, sitting around tanning and drinking bloody marys.  And not parenting.

The Cannonball

Sophie smacks into the water

Sequence of Abby jumping off the back of Brian's boat. . .

Time for the first tubing session of the weekend.  Alayna, as you can see, wasn't having any part of this - she's not a huge fan of tubing.

Cristina fell off a lot.

Abby, bobbing like a cork in the water.

Brian took it easy on the girls at first, but as they got braver he started to whip them around more.  Before long, he was giving them the same rough treatment he usually reserves for his own kids, but obviously these girls couldn't hold on as well. . .

Kris, sporting some fiiiiiine boat hair.

Never leave a man behind.

After tubing, we stopped in the middle of the lake to let the kids dive off the boat and swim around for awhile.  While this was going on, Bradley and his girlfriend - I wanna say her name was Brittney or Savannah or Claire or something - buzzed by us on the jet ski. 

This is a fan favorite.

What's fun about this?

This was an interesting twist on the classic Oberon from Bell's.  Can't say I'd but it again, but it wasn't terrible.  As we pulled in from entertaining the kids on the lake, we saw that Chris and his family had finally arrived.

These two baby-starved moms fight over who gets to hold Nora.

Nora stopped crying the second Kris took her from Jill.  Jill was not amused.

Louis plays with a construction vehicle in the water, not realizing, of course, that construction vehicles are meant for land work.

Playing on the beach

Jill makes a second attempt with Nora. . .

Dad and Louis playing with planes or something.

Abby, pensive.

While the kids were playing around in the water, this random pontoon slowly crawled along the shoreline, featuring. . . Santa and Mrs. Claus.  Inexplicably.  They passed by, waving, and continued on their way down the shore, never to be seen again.  Had no one else seen this happen, I would've for sure thought I was imagining things.

Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug

Poor Brian always gets stuck on grill duty whenever he comes up here.  Feel bad for the guy, but better him than me.

Wieners.

After dinner, Dad and Cindy offered to watch all the kids so that us 'young' adults could putz around the lake with drinks and no responsibilities for an hour.

This is, hands down, my favorite thing about Eight Point Lake, these sloooooow cruises where you can just talk and check out the lake/other cottages and chill on a boat.

(I was trying to give the girls bunny ears, but being so far back in the boat it didn't work.)

Meanwhile, back at the lakehouse. . .

Women, clucking.

As we made our way out of the cove of the lake, we saw this random, fat idiot swimming out in the middle of the water.  With daylight rapidly fading, and boats still out and about, this was ridiculously dangerous.  I'm assuming booze had a hand to play in this.

After a leisurely cruise about the lake, we returned to shore where Cindy put out a tray of cupcakes in order to celebrate the twins' 'birthday' (technically it's next month, but all us relatives were around so we said 'screw it.')

The Cannonball grabs herself a brace of four-year-olds.

Lucy, mid-lecture.  The Waites arrived in the evening, but weren't staying long - they were retiring early to get stuff around for the next day (our annual Cornhole Tournament blowout.)

Sunset.  Time for another cruise around the lake, this time with Dad and our four girls.

Cristina and Alayna (still wearing that frickin' Oberon hat I gave her.)

(That's Kris.)

Sophie and Abby, wearing matching anime hoodies (from some volleyball anime show they both like.)

The folks who own the old cottage we used to rent (from 2002 - 2019) erected an ugly, white picket pence around the entirety of their yard in order to keep their dogs from jumping in the lake.  It's atrocious.

Dad and Kris

Abby doing more of her usual creepy shit.  See ya tomorrow, folks. . .

- Brian