There She Goes!: Lake Gaston Fun

The week before Labor Day weekend, Greg’s parents rented a lake house on Lake Gaston, about an hour north of our home, with another family, the Johnsons, that they have been friends with for many years. It’s been a tradition for them to take a vacation together on the lake, renting a house, a boat, and a jet ski. This year was Ava’s first time on the lake. We’d originally planned to only stay two or three days but Ava was having so much fun (and so was I!) that she and I ended up staying the entire week while Greg had to go back home for a couple of days. He returned for one more day of fun before the week was up and he took us back home.

Ava loved playing in the shallow water and in the wet sand but she was not a fan of floating on a blowup raft of any kind. Maybe it seemed unstable to her. Ava doesn’t like wearing a life jacket and she doesn’t like floating in the water in the life jacket. She screamed while she was in the water with us, swimming in the middle of the lake. She seemed to like riding on the boat but she got tired pretty quickly. I think it’s the roar of the engine, the sun, and the wind - it would put anyone to sleep but Ava just fought it. She got to “drive” the boat while sitting on her grandpa’s lap. Also, the Johnsons brought their Malamute, Blue, to the lake and Ava just adored Blue. She enjoyed looking at him and would occasionally get brave enough to pet him. She has a real fondness for dogs.

Ava seemed unusually irritable during our time at the lake and developed a rash on her bottom. We thought it was a diaper rash from all the water, wet diaper, wet bathing suit but it looked funny. Then the rash spread on her legs. After we came home from the lake, we noticed blisters and bumps on the bottom of her feet and palms. She’d gotten hand-foot-mouth disease, although she never had any bumps or blisters in her mouth. That would explain her irritability at the lake, the poor darling. She’s getting over it now and is in a better mood.

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