Flesworthy Family Furlough Fun: Glen Lake

Well, I know where all my good luck was hiding during our craptastic June. It was waiting for me up at the lake, where we spent last week during Andy’s second-quarter work furlough.

For starters, we had some of the best weather I’ve ever experienced up north, let alone this early in the summer. I have spent some trips sleeping in a turtleneck sweater, or sitting by a blazing fire in the fireplace on the Fourth of July, but we arrived to a week of sunshine and warm temps. Or, should I say, hot temps, since it was in the upper 80s for most of our visit. I didn’t think I’d swim much (or at all) but the heat made the cold lake pretty bearable.

This was also the first trip where the fun/hard work ratio of bringing twins along was tilted more heavily to the “fun” side. Our first year with Henry and Eleanor was spent gazing longingly at the lake while we were trapped inside the cottage in the neverending infant feed-diaper change-sleep cycle. Last year was better, but both kids had recently become walkers, and we lived in constant danger of a toddler lunging headfirst off the screened-in porch or swandiving off of the dock.

During this trip, however, we got to see Henry and Eleanor’s excitement over throwing rocks into the water, having dragonflies land on their arms, bouncing up and down on their first see-saw ride, meeting “Big Boy” outside the restaurant after supper, being carried out into the lake to touch the buoys, watching the gaggle of mascots at the Traverse City Beach Bums game, scooping up Lake Michigan waves with their buckets, eating their first cherry ice cream (a lake summer staple), smelling every single flower display in downtown Leland, and being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa.

Wanna see the fun we had? Here you go: