There was candy.

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And there were children.

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There was candy.

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And there were children.

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Which eventually resulted in a lot less candy.

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But the children seemed to multiply, as only candy can make them do.

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I sat and drank coffee.

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They sat and drank sugar.

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The Rolos sat and hoped vainly for freedom.

(I might have freed a few of them.)

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And all was right with the world on that bright Easter morning, which has nothing to do with baskets or jelly beans

unless you count every good and perfect gift coming down from the Father of Lights with whom there is no variation or shifting of shadow.

All jelly beans aside, the best gift is what we celebrated at church that morning.

Right, Sawyer?

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He’ll get back to you on that one.

I know some of you visit here every day and I woke up thinking of you.  I just couldn’t let you show up to see our depressing backyard again. So let’s pretend. Let’s pretend it’s last July. Yes. Yes, that sounds good to me. (Did you know people go crazy here during mud season? They create their own reality…)

I love how the sun porch takes on a life of its own as the days go by.

We’ve only been here two days, but it already feels like home.

It’s hard to believe that we’ll clear out and somebody else’s life will be hanging by clothes pins here.

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I bet that’s what Greyson is thinking about as he stares out into the far horizon: somebody else’s life hanging by clothes pins.

Because you know, teenagers are so, like,  deep and existential.

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He’s thinking about email and wi-fi.

Is it sad that you can use an iPod Touch out here?

It’s sad.

But not if it’s only to communicate with Dad, who had to stay home and work.

Then, it’s a blessing.

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Kiki doesn’t have an iPod Touch. She has 7 rabbits, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

If you ever have the option, just remember that an iPod Touch does not require air freshener.

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Tristan doesn’t have either one of those yet. He shares the dogs.

But I’ll tell you what he does have. For some reason, Tristan has developed an affinity for the dock.

He asked me if he could take the boat out all by himself.

I think he wanted an adventure.  Like a mountain man.

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Triumph!

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Now what?

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Welp. I guess it’s time to go back.

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A deed well done, my man.  Self-satisfaction.  You can row a boat, navigate and turn home when you decide to.

Do you know what it’s time for now?

Pennies!

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Why does it feel like this picture is missing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

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The Munch will have to suffice.  Hey, Munch?

Never go to Bolivia, it won’t be a pleasant ending.

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Pleasant endings are not going to be found near these train tracks today.

You see, every year all the kids put pennies down so the little tourist train that comes by can flatten them.  It’s not a big engine, you can run faster than it can chug.  But it’s strong enough to flatten coins.

We’d already missed the first penny-flattening round since we showed up to the party a few days late.

So I had my kids put these down so they would be part of the tradition.

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We lined them up…

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And we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Turns out, the last train for the day had already passed.

It was my fault, I’d heard the whistle in the distance and thought it was coming back.  This was our last day too, so there’d be no flattened pennies this trip.

Wah.

We did find something else interesting by the tracks though…

I’m not sure how I feel about this next picture.  Part of me wants to laugh, but part of me wants to be repulsed.

Just don’t yell at me, it happened before we got there.

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“Mom, what is this?”

That, my friends, is all that’s left of a Ken doll.  A few days earlier, the kids had run out of pennies and sacrificed Ken just to see what would happen.

Ken always kind of bugged me.

He’d give his right arm to entertain you, though. heh-heh. heh.  ahem!

Moving on.

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Good-bye Lake House, your memories will never fade!

We’ll miss you!

We’ll see you next year–

(with a sack full of second-hand Barbies).

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Thank you for taking this second-hand tour with me. We’re going back to this Lake House in 79 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 13 seconds. I promise a fresh post.

Now I’m off to hose the mud from my backyard, the deck, the pantry, the dogs paws, and probably to throw out all the kids’ socks since they’ve been running back and forth to the trampoline, grinding the mud into their souls soles.