Lake Chatuge 2017: Trip Two

We went to the lake this weekend.

Again.

It's very, very hard for me to EVER find a reason to say NO when Jeremy asks if I want to go - not even when I CAN'T FIND MY CAMERA.

You read that right:

I CAN'T FIND MY CAMERA.

It's actually okay, though, because I'm always aware that I take WAY too many pictures - and I'd lately been thinking how I didn't even need to take pictures at the lake this weekend, because why do I need ANOTHER shot of Freddie driving the boat and all that?

So I guess you could say that I didn't take any pictures, because I'd DECIDED not to take any pictures, but the fact of the matter is that I COULDN'T take pictures - at least not hi-resolution ones.

What I have instead are iPhone snaps that I decided to string together in one obscenely long InstaStory (I've mentioned how much I love those, right?).



There are a couple of things I want to be sure to remember from the trip.

Most notably, of course, is probably the fact that the boys learned how to pee outside. If you'd have asked me earlier even in that very day, I'd have told you that, while I was surprised Freddie hadn't done it already (five nites into potty training), there was NO WAY my uptight, almost-always-anxious four year old would EVER relax enough to drop trou and relieve himself under cover of moonlight and underbrush.

But that's exactly what happened. Here's how:

Jeremy brought it up. As we were making s'mores, he said to Freddie, "Don't stand so close to the fire that you could pee on it." That prompted Jones to respond, "Daddy, we DO peepee on fire to make it go out. We just spray it, because we have water."

Oh, do ya' now? By the way, Son: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING?!

Anyway, a few minutes later, Freddie said he had to go potty. JOKINGLY, I said, "Well, just go over there in those woods." And, y'all. HE DID. To my surprise, HE was having trouble relaxing enough to relieve himself, so JONES WENT OVER TO SHOW HIM HOW. I'll say that again, in case you're as surprised as I was: JONES WENT OVER TO SHOW HIM HOW.

"See? It's easy!" he said, as he stood, bare-butted, beside his baby brother. "Just squeeze it out."

So Freddie did. Once they both pulled their shorts back up, they sat back down and resumed their s'mores'ing. Freddie said he had to pee again - and so he did, and then he looked at me very excitedly and asked through a giant smile, "Can I go stinky???"

No, Son. We're gonna go ahead and sequester THAT little bodily function to the confines of a fully operational INDOOR facility, but it's good to see you're getting the drift of things.

The next day, we went to our lake church. Jones and Freddie were moved from the nursery to children's church, and when we picked them up, the teacher told us that they'd had a lesson on the Widow's Mite. When the teacher asked the boys if they gave, Jones said, "To the BANK!"

Oh, Lawdy. Looks like we have work to do ... not the least of which is FINDING MY CAMERA.