Day at the Lake (and Cappuccino Crunch Ice Cream!)

We went to Hungry Mother State Park, in Virginia, today, and it was Wonderful! We got there a little before 11:00 and it was overcast and a little chilly, but by the time we'd finished our picnic the sun had come out and it was absolutely gorgeous!

It is such a pretty lake!

The kids spent most of the day jumping off the diving boards!

Travis's signature style. I always worry he'll hurt his arm. He did mention tonight that he'd hit his face pretty hard a few times.

I was there... see!

Katie is trying to show off her blue painted fingernails and toenails in this picture, but I missed them. But you can take my word for it -- they are blue!

She started her first sand castle in her lap, before realizing that there are some problems with this building technique.

Our picnic. Katie is doing her imitation of Peter Pettigrew. Pretty good, I think!

Travis spent a lot of time building The Cube.

(He used to be so little!)

Ed and Katie worked together on a more "free form" sand building complex. Katie thought she was the crew boss, but Ed thought maybe he was. There were structural issues.

Me, squinting attractively into the sun. I brought Dracula (the book behind me) but didn't get much reading in because I was busy admiring sand castles and making sure my lambies didn't drown. Plus, it really isn't much of a beach read, particularly this edition, which has lots of footnotes (including recipes for some of the meals Jonathan Harker eats on his trip to see the Count).

Here Travis is using his flip flop (he wanted a knife but, thoughtlessly, we had failed to pack one) to achieve straight sides and sharp corners.

My babies and me. Aren't they sweet?

And then, we went to visit my favorite ice cream store, which is right near the park. Travis and I had Cappuccino Crunch ice cream, which, aside from my mom's coffee/chocolate chip ice cream, is The Best Ice Cream in the World. Oh. my.word.

And, just to humor me (her expression is a little reluctant, isn't it!) Katie got on the horse she liked so much the first time we went to our ice cream store!

She's bigger now, but still just as sweet!

Days just don't get better than this!