pools and lakes

First day of school! I took a picture of them smiling, but my camera froze. This was the best we could get before they climbed on the bus.

Playing in the pool. Until recently, the water was as warm as a bath.

Now it's almost chilly.

I love this picture because Chris has an almost identical picture from back when he was about 15 yrs old.
If I had a scanner, I'd include his old picture here.

The university owns some lake-front property, and students/faculty can check out boats for free.
We decided to go see it, and loved (almost) every minute of it.

While they paddled (you can see them as tiny specks out there on the lake), I sat under a palm tree on the small beach and enjoyed the scenery.

Nice scenery! I could have sat there all day.

But then it was my turn to paddle. By then, the kids were tired of sitting in the hot sun with stinky life vests.

Josh enjoyed lounging under the palm trees after all that paddle boating (where he couldn't reach the pedals, so he didn't get much of a workout...)

But Chris and Ethan weren't ready to lounge, yet. They checked out a canoe and took it out for a spin.

While they were gone, Ashley built her house upon the sand. Then she built Josh's house upon the sand.

Then Ethan wanted to get in on the fun and build his house on the sand. His is just a big stick.

It was a great day, and I think we'll probably bring anyone who visits us to the lake. The kids loved it.

 Josh reading Dick and Jane before school in the morning

Ethan's reading the 6th Harry Potter book. Notice his super cool Lightning Mcqueen behind him--he won that from our insurance company! yay :)

Ashley's reading a little Nancy Drew. Which book? Well, it's a mystery...

Will this room ever be clean? That's a mystery, too.

crazy gators...

Today was a game day. People warned us not to drive anywhere when there was a home game, so I ventured out on foot with Josh. This is what it looked like on the streets all around us (all pictures are pirated from gainesville.com):

People started to set up their tents by about 10 a.m., and by 4:00 the streets were packed with people, and every inch of grass space in the city on/near campus was filled with cars and canopies. Some of the tailgaters weren't even going to the game, but sat through traffic and paid for parking just to watch TV outside.

Girls with megaphones stood outside their apartments selling parking space on their grass and driveways. The roads were all pretty much parking lots. Even Josh said he was glad we weren't driving!

Yeah. We won't be going anywhere on game days...