Memories of Another Lake...

Being at Lake Tahoe with Sam and Patience recently reminded me of my 30th birthday. I'd taken them to Saylorville Lake, outside of Des Moines. Their cousin, Keri was with us too.

Watching Patience spin in circles while dragging her hand through the water, spraying water every-
where, reminded me of watching Keri do the same.

They both looked graceful.









And gleeful.











If you look closely, you will see that Sam and Patience each had a stick in their mouth.

They were pretending to be dogs.









My friend, Tracey brought her daughter Jessie (and one of Jessie's friends) to meet us. They set up their tent to camp with us that night.

In the middle of the night, there was a huge thunderstorm. The kids slept soundly through it. I enjoyed the majesty.

Note: Jessie can be seen wearing a red bikini in the background of some of the pictures above and the one below but I don't have any good pictures of the two them from that night. This one is from a day we took the kids swimming at Maytag pool in Newton, Iowa.
Sam and Patience loved to play in the sand then.









And now.












They had cheesy grins and made silly faces.















They splashed and played happily together.








And on their own.











What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday, sharing nature together with family and friends.

Thanks for the memories, everyone and for making them with me. Thanks, Cam for the new ones.