Weekend fun with Keena and Jello (Luke's now on a first name basis with us)

After endless days and nights of working on the basement, the drywall is up and we took a much needed break. Julio sometimes laughs at my "we", when I say things like, "we" should do this in the basement, or how much do "we" have left to do...but you get my point. I feel like I needed a break too...So, here's our weekend in a (potentially long) nutshell.
Julio had Friday to Sunday off, so we joined a friend of mine who teaches at TCI in a family studies class where they run a nursery school and went to the zoo with teenagers and toddlers and my pregnant teacher friend. It was a gorgeous day, but I think Luke enjoyed the puddles he found probably a bit more than the animals. They were so hot and tired that Julio referred to the leopard as looking like just a big rug so why would Luke care, but at least the bison were massive enough to get noticed. The bears were a hit, however, and we stood there for a good long time watching them roam around. After days of rain and drywall, we were happy just to be out! And it was great having huge "roads" without cars for Luke to run around on. So we had fun.
Luke and Julio enjoying the bears.
Apparently just me enjoying the monkeys.Attempt #5 at getting a family photo. Sorry Julio doesn't get more face, it's the best we could do. After our zoo excursion, we finished our packing and headed out for the lake. Luke slept the whole way down which was awesome and was ready for some serious fun when we got to the cottage. The weekend was a blast. Basically our routine was the same for the two days we were there: Get up way too early (thank you Luke!), eat a massive breakfast, clean-up toys and dishes and get ready to go for a walk by 9am. That felt far too productive for a morning on what was supposed to be a lazy weekend, but I'm realizing that lazy needs to get redefined, i.e., going to bed at 9pm as opposed to wishing you could sleep in until 9am. Anyway, we went for a walk both days, Luke gathered up stones and put them in his pockets to throw in the lake, we visited a bit with my uncle and aunt who have a cabin down there too, spent a couple of hours on the beach, ate again, slept, tried to convince Luke that swimming and getting all gross wasn't fun twice in one day, played with fun toys on my aunt and uncle's deck, ate some more, Luke went to bed, Julio and I played games, we crashed. It was truly great. The weather was amazing and Luke was way too much fun. He always amazes us with his continual enthusiasm and energy and all the funny things he comes up with. So, here's a glimpse at our fun:
Our "walk". The normal 15 minute loop took us about an hour. To be honest, it was the perfect pace for me. Luke didn't want to sit in his stroller, so he meandered here and there and did the occasional sprint with Julio.

Gotta be just like dad. Fun at the beach. I look huge. Wow. (I'm 32 weeks here, for those who are interested. It's just the angle, really...)
Burying our toes...the only really "relaxing" activity Luke would let us do at the beach. We buried our toes A LOT.

The "sa-wide"! This is the stupidest slide I've ever seen, as it is too wide, the stairs too steep, the slats too narrow and the slide too fast for children under 12 basically...very annoying but Luke loved it and seeing as my balance is questionable, Julio was the designated "sa-wider" all weekend. While they slided, I worked hard on my rock art. (see next picture)

Luke's favorite thing was to throw rocks in the lake, so I bum-scooted around the beach (quite the sight I'm sure, we were, thankfully, the only ones on the beach) finding him rocks and he would run to me, get the rocks, run back to Julio and they would throw them in. A brief visit by Papa Ron and "A-Anne" (Gramma Anne officially). For all of you worried about heavy machinery and small children, the tractor was not running with Luke in the vicinity. (happy Marcia?!?)
On Uncle Don and Aunt Betty's deck...they had a bunch of tools that Luke happily stored in the trunk of this car and drove around with. At one point he actually tried to take off with the entire car and bring it to our cabin. And I can't be certain he didn't stash their hammer in a pocket somewhere...the boy LOVES hammers! Finally, back home. In the last week or so, Luke has seriously bonded with his stuffed bear. "Bear", or "Beer" as it often sounds to me (I've been secretly calling him "Labatt" but don't tell Julio...), has his own place at the table now. Directly across from Luke. We must hold Bear's hands to pray, we try to feed Bear but he hasn't quite mastered the chewing thing yet, we very nearly even gave Bear a time-out yesterday. It's been interesting. As is Bear's smell...I really must wash him soon...