Overnighter Checklist - Clear Lake Style

We headed out in the early afternoon after church with low lying fog and about 90 minutes into our drive, the sun appeared.  It was gorgeous!!  But then again I love the sun!  (Another reason I live in a place where the sun shines over 320 days a year).  The closer we got to the coast the greener it got.

As soon as we got to Clear Lake we put dinner on the stove and checked out the lake.  The timeshare had it's own private dock, with a beautiful view.  

After our we walked around and got acquainted with the resort, we had dinner, made cookies and settled in with games, a movie and family home evening.  We had a great time!  The phone didn't ring (oh wait there were the people underneath us who called the office because they thought we were being too loud!), but the normal interruptions that are sometimes at home weren't there.  Love, love, love it!

The next day's weather forecast showed clouds in the morning and then clearing up in the afternoon.  I was so happy to see a clear sky when I woke up!!  I took off for a few minutes by myself to walk along the lake.  It was just what my spirit needed.  I felt so renewed by the quiet morning, the beautiful surroundings, and the crisp air.  I sat and watched the lake change colors as the fog rolled off of it, the sun came over the hill tops and the sky's reflection caught the water.  Here are a few of the many pictures I took.  I love that golden, morning light and look how the light changes.

And then finally the BLUE sky reflected in that BLUE water - what a beautiful sight!!

 Tyler had his 5am work meeting and we had baked oatmeal for breakfast (and chocolate milk-a special treat!) and played some more games.  It's so fun that now we've got four kids old enough to actually play some games.  I had legos for Matthew and he too was just as thrilled to be playing next to us.  

We then spent some time at the pool.  My favorite kind, outdoors with clean, fresh air, but heated and nice and warm.

I recently came across this quote from the book, "Rhythm of Life" by Matthew Kelly.  I haven't read it, but he talks about "carefree timelessness".  He says, "Most of us know that the happiest people on the planet are those who are focused on their personal relationships.  Relationships thrive under one condition: carefree timelessness.  Do we gift our relationships with carefree timelessness?...We have to make carefree timelessness a priority.  The nature of carefree timelessness is to be timeless.  You lose track of time. Carefree timelessness is carefree.  It has nothing to achieve other than the enjoyment of each other's company.  Teenagers are experts at this.  How often do parents ask their teenagers when they are going out with friends, "Where are you going?" The children reply, "I don't know!"  Of course, we may consider this an unacceptable answer, but it may well be the truth.  Carefree timelessness.  It is the reason young people fall in love so easily.  The lack of carefree timelessness is the reason the rest of us fall out of love so easily.  Carefree timelessness cause us to fall in love with life and others.  The first thing that you need to do is schedule it.  Now I hear the objection in the back of your mind.  You are thinking,  if I have to schedule it then it is not carefree timelessness. Not so.  Think back to our definition of carefree timelessness, as time spent without an agenda.  I didn't say that it is unscheduled and will happen all on it's own.  We know it won't. We have to schedule it, but we don't have to have an agenda."

Ever since I've read this, it's been on my mind.  I seem to have a much easier time doing this on our little day trips or vacations, than at home.  We had no schedule for the day.  We had to check out at noon, but nothing else to even be home for.  Had I been at home I would have been doing the laundry, preparing dinner, attending to misc. emails or phone calls, maybe working on my church calling, in-between playing and "being there" (emotionally hopefully) with my kids.  I crave these times when you don't have to have a watch on or be anywhere.  I LOVE the feeling.  I know my kids can feel me let loose more and enjoy the moment.  I'm working on creating this more at home on a regular basis.  We'll see how it goes, little steps at a time.  
I digress...back to our swimming.  It was a wonderful, carefree, timelessness time.  After wards, we packed up, ate lunch, and drove around the other side of the lake to Clear Lake State Park.

  Armed with our favorite trail mix (my friend, Carolyn's recipe:  craisins, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, mini chocolate chips, and cashews) we found a great hike that would give us a view of the lake.  It was the GREENEST hike I have ever seen!  Green moss was growing on everything, in fact I was sure if we stopped for long, it would grow on us!!

We saw six deer along our way and the kids loved that.  We ended at the beach and spent some more of that magical, precious time sitting and relaxing.  When we arrived there weren't any sticks and within minutes you can see Matthew had thrown in several!!

We then got to about the same place in our journey as the day before when we headed back into the fog. It was almost fake looking, but so pretty.