Week in Review: Life at the Lake, Life at Home, and Life is Good

These summer weeks are flying by!  I think when we last left off it was right before Independence Day, and my altar servers were on their field trip day of Altar Boy Boot Camp.  They toured a beautiful Cathedral, then went to a go-cart place, then came and got ice cream at The Cottage!  

The fireworks for the city next to us (but that can be seen from our town on the water as well) were scheduled for July 3rd this year.  Something about the city not having the funding for the fireworks until too late in the game, and they had to pick a date that the company was available.  Anyhoo, July 3rd happened to give us a WILD rain/lightening/thunder storm that evening that seemed to come out of nowhere.  Lots of trees down and power outages, but the fireworks still went on, though delayed until 9:30 pm.  So many people were mad about it, because they couldn't go outside, drive on certain roads, had lost power, so they couldn't see the show.  But the city couldn't postpone until a much later date, and the weather did clear up enough by 9:30.  The fireworks night is typically a very busy night for us at The Cottage, and we actually did much more business than I thought we would considering the storm, but I wish for everyone's sake that it had been a nice clear evening.  

On July 4, we went to my sister's house for a good old fashioned American BBQ.  We had a little cake and cupcake bouquet to celebrate my Dad's birthday (85!!) and to say Farewell to JP:

Cuzzies

Is it even a family party without Spikeball?

My sister, who is a dermatologist, wanted to gift JP a nice stethoscope for med school, which he is very appreciative of.

He used it right away to listen to my Dad's lung crackle, a party trick he pulls out whenever he's around a stethoscope:

Last shift at The Cottage

That evening, Phil and I were talking about our timeshare at Lake Winnipesaukee, which we can no longer use for the whole week, so we rent it out instead.  It had rented for five days out of the seven, so there were two days available and we decided last minute to head up to New Hampshire the next morning for a quick overnight trip with the three youngest boys.  We packed up and drove the 3 hours on Saturday morning to our little slice of heaven.  We have a 3 bedroom/2 bath condo and it's totally outdated and we totally love it *nostalgia*.  The pool area is so nice and the town has so much to do on the lake, and I was very thankful to get the reprieve, even if only for one night.

I am a big fan of that pool hammock

Pickleball

The name Brendan means "prince" if you can't tell ;)

We swam for four hours upon arrival, ate lunch at the pool, checked into the condo and showered, then went to Mass in town, followed by dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  We went to FunSpot after, which is like a little Vegas for kids, and my boys love to gamble and win tickets.  They turned in their tickets for some candy and cheap toys, and had the time of their lives.

I made them ride these animal bumper cars for old times sake.

On Sunday we went for a walk down to Weirs Beach and the boardwalk.  Phil makes the kids run up this huge hill (the picture doesn't capture the steepness of it) if they want to buy a drink at the Cumberland Farms at the top.  I walked up for my iced coffee. Then we walked over to the pool and swam for a couple hours before sadly heading home.  

Beautiful Lake Winnipesaukee

On the drive home, we had to drop off Brendan to Eamon in Boston because they were going to the Savannah Bananas at Fenway with Brendan's best friend and his dad.

Bros

Bruhs

JP had been planning to leave on Saturday at 3am to drive to Pittsburgh, but when I awoke at 4am to use the bathroom, I checked his location and saw that he was still at home.  I went up to his bedroom and woke him up (he swears he had set three alarms that he must have turned off?) and he got on his way.  I was happy to get in one more hug anyway.  He wasn't in a rush to get there, but he still managed to get a speeding ticket in PA, and finally arrived safely to unpack at his first apartment.  He met his roommate and went grocery shopping, bought a desk and chair, built his bed and settled in over the weekend.  He attended an Anatomy Bootcamp Monday - Wednesday to get a head start and said it was really cool dissecting a chicken wing with state of the art lab equipment, meeting the admins and other students, and getting the lay of the land.  His first day of Orientation was Thursday, and I needed my kids' help to find him in this photo that DUQCOM posted:

Andrew, who has been working lots of hours, asked for two days off from scooping to spend with college friends down on the Cape this week.  They stayed at our house for a night before driving to Dennis the next morning and had lots of fun even though the weather was cloudy and then rainy. 

Aidan and Andrew

Joe, Aidan and Andrew - such nice boys but imposter lifeguards

Eamon told Phil a few weeks ago that he wanted to go skydiving with his friend, but didn't want to tell me because he thought I would forbid it.  Of course Phil told me *besties* and I said Eamon could go as long as he went to Confession first, and didn't tell me when he was jumping until after he safely landed.  I got a text on Tuesday with this photo:

"I went skydiving and all I got was this lousy photo."

I was so happy he was safe and that I didn't have to worry.  Ignorance was indeed bliss!  Now hopefully that's out of his system.

Much better photo of him on my brother-in-law's boat earlier in the week.

Maggie had a fun day on Martha's Vineyard with friends over the weekend, including bridge jumping off the "Jaws Bridge", shopping and a seaside lunch:

The Maggies

Then she started volunteering at the hospital on Monday.  She's working in the Wound Care Unit:

Declan and Brendan have been at a YMCA day camp this week, and they come home happy and tired and sweaty just like little boys should.  They shower and put on pajamas and have screen time until dinner and nobody says "I'm bored" all day.  

Xander has been Phil's right hand man at the shop, making waffle cones, changing buckets, and training for when he can become a scooper and can go on payroll at age 14 (this month!).  

We also have our first great niece!  Look at how cute little Rosie is.  I can't wait to eat those cheeks:

And wow, I guess I can see why the weeks are flying by!  Never a dull moment but we *mostly* love it.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your family and friends!