Lake House Vacation

Recently, Jim and Steph (my brother and his wife) rented a gorgeous lake house with its own dock on Smith Mountain Lake.  We were invited to spend 2 days of their vacation with them!  I had no idea about this man-made lake in the western part of our state, but it has 500 miles of shore length in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The lake is super clean so that swimming in it doesn't feel gross and when you get out of the water you don't smell like fish.  Since I detest the ocean (salt water is not my thing), I adored Smith Mountain Lake.

Joseph didn't love the water, but he loved playing on the beach. When he was in the water, he wanted to be held and he also liked putting his face into the water and lapping it up like a puppy, but on the shore, he was a fun little boy, building sand castles to stomp on them with great satisfaction and playing with a bulldozer/digging truck he had.

Abigail gave us the most amazing surprise of the trip: she started swimming!!!  She learned to "cannonball" off of the dock (it was more of a crazy limbs-flailing event than a big splash, but she was brave).  She also "swam" (wearing a life jacket) several times across the inlet with Jim and Steph.  Once, at night when it was dark, she swam across and there was a docked boat and Jim or Steph dared her to "touch the butt**." After asking what a dare is, she obliged, and then swam back to their dock in the dark.  Jim said he was a bit freaked out in the dark, deep water, but that Abigail was so brave.  My kid is the coolest kid ever.

But even more amazing to me wasn't that she could doggy paddle around in a life jacket in the dark, but that at the beach, when she was in water where she could stand, she wore goggles and went under water and just started moving her legs and arms around and started swimming underwater to get places and dive for things!  It was such a proud moment watching Abigail swim.  A month ago she was afraid to get her face wet.  Now she is swimming!!!!

** this is a Finding Nemo reference