Living easy at the lake

Our friends Wes and Gina Wise generously invited us to spend the 4th at their lake house on Table Rock near Reeds Spring/Branson, so we drove down there late that afternoon and spent the next day out on the lake with the Wise family and Gene and Jackie Douglas. They have an awesome getaway down there and we had a laid-back time with old college friends and all our kids. The picture above of Macauley in his lifejacket reminds me of the movie What About Bob? when Bill Murray goes out on the sailboat and then declares, "I'm sailing! I'm a sailor! I sail!"

The kids got along so well, which made the parents have a much better time, of course. In the picture above are Bailey Wise (6), Elle Douglas (5), Cooper Wise (3!), Ross Douglas (3, I think) and Macauley Fraser (5).

The Wises have a nice boat and we spent all day Saturday out on the water. Ryan took Macauley out on the tube, and at first, Macauley was really excited...

...then grew progressively more nervous and scared as the tube bounced along faster...

...and finally the ride came to a dramatic halt when the tears started to flow. Overall, Macauley was pretty adventurous this weekend, but tubing was not for him. He also got a major tummy ache while we were there and Macauley and I had a few more humorous bathroom incidents, most of which I won't go into...Except that before we left on the boat he said he had to "go" (and I mean really go) again and I told him we couldn't make it back to the house so he'd have to go in the woods. He didn't want to, but he psyched himself up for it. "I'm just going to have to do it!" he told himself as we were walking towards the woods, and then, "I'm just going to have to pretend I'm a bear!" He squatted down and did and I sent him back to the lake to swish around.

We swam, Ryan kneeboarded and the three of us all enjoyed a family ride on the Wises' WaveRunner. Oh, and we ate a ton. We aren't really "lake people," I guess, in that we don't spend much time at the lake ordinarily (perhaps because I think about all the creatures and little "bear" bottoms swishing around doing who knows what in that murky water!), but we had such a good time and really appreciate the Wises' hospitality and hope they invite us back to the Wise Getaway again soon!