The Joys of Lake Living

I romantically think back to the movie "On Golden Pond" as how I want to grow old. Yes it had the now over done Disney plot ... angry teen sent to live with relatives for a summer to help "turn him around."

However, the idea of a summer by a lake or a pond seems very romantic. Growing up my most memorable summers were the ones where we camped along a lake in both Upstate New York and Mendocino, Calif.  I wanted my boys to experience the joys of lake living during the summer. We are so lucky that my Aunt and Uncle live on a clay bottom lake near Cheboygan, Mich.

My Aunt and Uncle have a pontoon boat, and the boys like riding on it across the lake, looking at fishes and trying to find loons. We also tried our hands at fishing, but honestly the boys are probably a little too young. They were more excited about swinging the fishing line then waiting patiently for a fish.

I've been taking the boys to swim lessons for awhile, but until we got to Michigan it hadn't occurred to me that the boys have never had the chance to play in water... And play they did. My Aunt had inner tubs, floaties and blow-up gators for the boys to use in the water. Xander took to the water right away, and spent a couple of hours  almost everyday in the lake. Caleb on the other hand was a bit reticent about the whole water thing. He liked riding in my lap or Jonathan's lap on the inner tube ... but even more so playing catch (him comfortably on the deck or the boat, his partner in the water).

We'll probably go back for a visit in 2012 when Xander is 7 and Caleb is 5. It will be fun to see how the lake experience changes for them, as their able to do more things. Maybe one of them will even catch a fish.