Blog Friends...Now Real Life Friends!

Last Saturday, Ryan and I got up SO EARLY, because he planned to barefoot on the lake before the water got choppy from other boats, but his skiing partner called off the trip at the last minute, so we went down to the edge of the water to enjoy the stillness of the morning with our coffee.

I was every bit as cranky as I look in this picture. In fact, when I took it, I said to Ryan, "Let's go ahead and take a picture of a moment neither of us really wants to remember for life. LOL! I was cranky from lack of sleep, cranky from the canceled boat ride, cranky because we couldn't find the key to the family boat for us to sneak out for a quick private boat ride while everyone else was still asleep, and cranky most of all because the ladies on the deck at the cottage two doors down had a LOT to say and their voices carried more than my decaffeinated mind could handle. I finally had to go inside. No point in sitting by the stillness of the water when it's not still! HA!

Eventually I perked up, and it was good, because we had a fun day planned! My friend Natasha, who became my friend because of this blog, was on a road trip with her family, and they just happened to be driving through the lake area that day! We made plans leading up to our trip to meet together, and it was the highlight of our day!

Natasha, Dave, and their kids, Sam and Rachel, were real-life delights just as they are blog-friend delights!

GROUP PHOTO!!!!

It worked out that the weather held AND the boat was available between tubing trips so we could take them out on a boat ride! It was a fun way to start our time together:

When we were done with the boat, we came home and went out to eat together at a little pancake house in town...and then we took a walk through town. There was a festival that weekend, so there were little booths and vendors that were fun to visit.

And then...because it only seemed good and right and appropriate, we went to the coffee shop together to talk, enjoy air conditioning, and let the kids color and play games for a while.

And then we had to say goodbye. :( But what a fun time we had together while we had time!

Back at the cottage, everyone was hanging out on the deck and in the boat, so we got some cute pictures. {Bet you can't guess which one was Ryan's idea!}

We got to see the ski show this year, and thanks to my zoom lens, I got some fun shots of that!

We had ribs for dinner that night and it was fun to sit around watching the kids play before bed!