Lake Day

You never realize how fleeting time is until you have children who are grown. Years ago in the moment of raising littles my focus was to get through each day not taking the time to cherish every moment with them.

This weekend we went to the lake for fishing and camping. These will be firsts for me along with my 2 1/2 year old son Jaxon.

Leading up to our trip Jaxon was so excited. For several days he said, “I going to go fishing at the lake.” We got there and he saw the lake and his excitement heightened as the talked about lake was now real and mere feet from where we begin to setup camp.

As my husband and I unload the truck and begin setting up the tent. Jaxon sits in his lawn chair admiring the lake and waiting patiently for mom and dad to be ready to venture closer to the lake.

After some battles with high winds and a broken tent on our hands we concede we will not be able to camp for the night. My husband and I gather up the fishing gear and some beach toys and take Jaxon to venture closer to the lake.

As we approach the water Jaxon is very wide eyed in awe of the lake before him. We find a good fishing spot and my husband goes out into the lake. Jaxon attempts to follow but becomes stuck in some mud and falls forward feet and hands now dirty. My toddler now says, “I’m dirty. Clean me off!” In a panicked voice. I help him out of the mud and show him how to clean off his hands and feet in the water. After cleaning off the mud he is done with the water and wants to be carried to the beach to avoid stepping through the muddy sand again.

On the beach we take out his beach toys and use the shovels to dig down in the sand and fill buckets to make sand castles. Jaxon loves the sand filling his buckets and dumping them back onto the sand forming his sand castle.

Jaxon and I continue to play in the sand for the rest of the afternoon as my husband continues to fish. No fish were caught. Many buckets of sand were filled. And new memories made.

We head back to our campsite to reload the car. As we walk away Jaxon says, “I have a good day. The lake is fun.”

We reload the car just in time before a storm begins to form over the lake. Maybe the breaking of our tent poles was a divine sign we weren’t meant to camp that night with a toddler in storms. We still made memories and can make more another time with an overnight camp. As soon as we buy another tent!