Danielle Burkleo

the lake, part 2.

All Posts, Motherhood, Travel0
testing. testing. 1, 2, 3…
my name is danielle and i forgot, just for a minute, that i had a blog. having guest posts in the summer time is all-the-freakin’-rage, if you didn’t already know that. i mean… who really blogs in the summer anyway?
what’s that? all of you do? ah well, just call me a slacker then.
you didn’t think that last post was going to be all i shared about the lake, did you? i’m still holding on to it. pretending i’m still there. my kids are all, mom! stop jumping off the porch and trying to run away from us. that grass is not a lake, and we, right here? we’re your kids. 

i brought a big ol’ pile of books on vacation with me. i had plans of getting to each of them. but the weather was so perfect that i was always swimming or fishing or dockin’ or doing something outdoors. but i did get around to reading one book. bloom. i had so many different emotions when reading it and, i think, to sum it up, i felt just the way that kelle felt at the end of the book.

she writes, “It was the tale of The Velveteen Rabbit, a book I had read to Lainey on many occasions, its most poignant and memorable words coming from the Skin Horse — the shabby old toy who shared the truth with the Velveteen Rabbit when he wanted to know what it meant to be real. The wise old Skin Horse, of course, told the inquisitive rabbit, who confused being real with being flashy and new, that being real is something that happens to you when you are loved. And when the rabbit asked if being real hurts, the Skin Horse answered honestly. He told the rabbit that, yes, being real sometimes hurts but that being real makes you not afraid of being hurt. In his final words to the innocent rabbit, the Skin Horse tells him that by the time you become real, you don’t look so pretty. You might not work like the other toys or look as lovely but that it doesn’t matter because when you are real, you can’t be ugly. I remember crying when I had read that story after Nella was born, comforted by the greater truth that my baby girl didn’t need to be flashy or like everyone else to be real. But I realized something re-reading that story a year later — something I never thought to consider. The story of the Velveteen Rabbit was not about Nella. No, it was about me.” (Kelle Hampton, Bloom)

 if, by some small chance, you live under a rock, and have not read nella’s birth story. go here and read it. and then read the rest of kelle’s blog, in it’s entirety. all morning and all night the next two weeks. you think i’m kidding?

binocular early mornings. spying for daddy and papa out fishing on the lake.

and early morning fishing trips for us, too.

my heart skips a beat over these next two pictures of brody. the excitement of pulling in a fish on a little boy’s face… nothing quite like it.

the boys discovered glow sticks this vacation. i think all our belongings were glowing by the end of the week. woops.

that’s our house, from the lake.

i know. 

campfires every night. the boys actually do not eat s’mores. they only want the coc-o-lit, as foster calls it. it’s a win-win for me cause i get to eat theirs.
there’s my poodle girl! with her grammy. story, lit-ter-a-lee never took a nap longer than 35 minutes. why, child? the old me would have stressed the heck out over this. but it actually worked so well. she fell asleep anywhere and everywhere. most of the time in her grammy’s arms as we zoomed around the lake on our dock. heavenly.

truth:
the lake house had colorful christmas lights on it so it was obviously meant for me. when we first arrived, brody looked up at the lights, pointed and gasped, is it christmas, mom!?! love. that. boy.

corn on the cob carriers.

the boy’s first sparkler experience. 
brody’s all, get this thing away from me! and held his sparkler out as far away from him as possible.

foster, on the other hand is all, smoke engulfing my face, yes!! fiiiiiirraaa!!
sneaky, sneaky fire loving boy.
story and her papa, taking in all the action. 

if you had made it this far in this blog post, you have won an award. and i have won the award for most pictures in a blog post. my award = grilled pizza. 
if you have not consumed this, you have not lived. roll out the dough, grill it 2-3 minutes each side. add toppings and grill another 4 minutes.

sensational.

in our family, when someone is laughing really hard we saying that they’re peeing. i think this originated by using the saying that goes something like laughing so hard i’m about to pee my pants. but now we just say peeing. which, i’m sure, to an outsider sounds quite strange. which is accurate cause we are definitely quite strange. and, with that, here’s a picture of my dad peeing. you’re welcome.
little sister, rin, modeling her marshie. she wishes she had my marshmallow roasting skillz.

i got me an anklet at the local thrift and gift shop. i felt like a little girl again and that is fabulous. what’s a vacation without a new anklet? 
i think brody’s pretending to have been hooked like a fish in this next picture. but no one’s really sure.

kayaking. i love kayaking.

foz out for a little go-around with papa.

the boys.

brody has thing with pointing at people. it sort of scares caleb and i. we’ll be talking and turn around and brody is standing there POINTING IN OUR FACE, just starring. creeptastic child, creeptastic. 
rin and i’s failed attempts at getting a zoom lens to capture our faces while we were paddle-boating around.

and this is foster’s firework dance, he titled it that himself. i can’t decide if he named it that because of his love for katy perry or because he thinks sparklers are fireworks. either way, dude can work it. 
stomping for the fire gods.
to the left, to the left. 
break it down!
he ends the dance with a crotch grab. just like any good firework dance, or blog post, should. 
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Comments

  1. what great memories 🙂
    and when i first found kelle's blog, i did the whole "read every post without stopping" thing and was completely in tears.
    i want to read bloom too.
    glad y'all had such a fabulous time.
    looked like a little piece of heaven!

  2. so while i love your lake post and the pics were great….i must comment on the link to kelle's blog. i am sitting here crying in my cheerios. what a wonderful story. thanks for sharing.

  3. This looks like my ideal vacay.
    Is this the lake house for October?! (still so sad I can't come)
    Your kids are off of the charts cute.
    I just told my husband I want a nose ring just like that.

  4. Love this so much!

    I laughed out loud at Foster just smiling while smoke consumed his face. Hilarious.

  5. looks like such an amazing time. glad you enjoyed your trip. i miss lake/cabin time with the family around this time of year.

  8. love everything about this… we are lake people.
    my inlaws live on a lake… it's almost like vacation everytime we go over there… except it's the inlaws so ya… not always relaxing… did i just say that?! 😉

  9. I just wanted to say that I tried making this grilled pizza you speak of and it turned out to be a totally scrumptious success! Thank you for this!

  10. What a happy post!! so nice to read this!!!:)
    Glad you r making so many memories with your family!! <3 <3

    San
    beesandsans.blogspot.com

  12. you know why it was okay if Story didn't sleep?…because you are your are on Vay-Kay at the lake!
    corn on the cob carriers. love it
    fishing pics. love it
    pic on Story with her little hand in her mouth. love it
    i love moments like that…from vacation, that are burned in your brain and give you fuel to get through the year..you see the picture and it takes you back to that moment when you knew you were breathing in Gods perfection with your family by your side.
    i want to see a picture of you jumping!

@danielleburkleo