A Day at the Lake

I love almost all there is to love about North Carolina.  I love that we are 1 hour from the mountains and 4 from the beach.  To welcome fall, we took the kids to a mountain lake for some hiking and swimming.  Patrick had the day off, so we had the lake to ourselves.  The only stress was a 3 mile hike just before lunch.  The kids did remarkably well.  Max found a way to hike nearly the whole 3 miles. Patrick had to throw him up on his shoulders for just a bit, which I imagine was difficult since he had Lucy on his back.  I carried the baby and the other kids ran from trail marker to trail marker.  At each marker they got pistachios from Patrick's pocket stash, which helped keep hunger at bay.  The funniest moment was a discussion I had with Sean on the trail which went something like this.

Sean:  "Mom, are you afraid to die?"

Mom:  some long winded answer on the bliss of Heaven and while dying is not something I look forward to, I do look forward to Heaven, God, the saints....etc...etc..

Sean:  (several minutes later...after pondering my answer)  "I just don't want to die on this hike."

he was serious.  and that is so Sean.  he is a half empty...or still looking for the milk to pour in the glass kind of kid.