Lake Mormon - Labor Day Weekend

We are home. What a fantastic weekend! It has been years since we last made it up to the lake and I'm so glad we took the time to do so this weekend. Aunt Jennifer was there with her entire crewe. It was our first time meeting Craig's kids and everyone just hit it off well. We, but most especially ROMAN, are THRILLED to welcome Jamie, Craig, and Jake to the family. Craig is 13 and Jake is 6 so Roman falls right in the middle and was just beside himself to have BOY cousins at last! Bethany and Jake were like 2 peas in a pod and practically inseparable most of the weekend and of course Hope was watching Jamie's every move. She's 16 and Hope was just in awe of her. Uncle Rob and Uncle Anthony were there too. We were all disappointed that Aunt Karla, Uncle Dan and Lucy couldn't make it up too, oh and I forgot to mention Jessie what there too. He is Craigs younger brother and we're glad to welcome him to the family too. Next summer Katy and Luke will be on the move and ready to take over that place! Here's a pic of just my and Jennifer's families! Can you even imagine what the entire family picture will look like??



The weather was perfect! Not too hot, but not cold either. I little nip in the air in the night and early mornings. Just perfect! The kids were able to swim and of course lots of fishing was to be had. Roman caught several fish. Hope caught her first fish and B and Jake were able to scoop a few small ones with nets.




We all hiked to the spring, then around the lake, stopping at Great Grandma's to play a game of touch football.

The kids road the golf cart, helped harvest seaweed - what an experience that was!, and Hopey even got to go shopping. She actually called back to the house to speak to Bethany, but since she was out playing Uncle Rob took a message.... "Tell Bethany that I'm shopping..... in NEW YORK!!!" *squeal* You would have thought the big apple itself by her excitement, but no, they were in the middle of nowhere NY state!






The boys harvested seaweed while Hope and the teenagers were gone. How does one harvest seaweed you may ask! Well, Lake Mormon is a shallow lake and the vegetation on the bottom has gotten seriously out of control. The worst they've seen in 30 years. So using heavy duty rakes they scrape it off the bottom and remove it from the lake. Easier said than done! In the end the decided that this would be the best method to harvest the most seaweed:

Which produced massive amounts of seaweed that Roman and Craig then loaded into wheelbarrows to dump in the woods. Both complained heavily the entire time, but they worked their butts off. On the drive home Roman asked if he could help harvest the seaweed again next year cause it was FUN! LOL

On Saturday night the mayor of the town set off professional fireworks over the lake. It was AMAZING!!! We were probably way too close and practically had to lay down as they were directly above us, but man was it beautiful! Katy never made a peep. She was just in total awe and the noise which echoed over every mountain within miles didn't phase her a bit.

Board games were played, more football games to be had, S'mores and bonfires, Katy said "HI DaDa" which totally made James's weekend, and as the sun began to set on the mountain Monday night someone from across the lake began playing songs on a Bagpipe and it was just so surreal and the perfect ending to a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Happy Labor Day to all