A cold day at the lake.

 

 

 A COLD DAY AT THE LAKE

Becca still believes the lake is getting warmer and that she should try and get in. Although the water was chilly, it was not so bad that Becca eventually "fell in" and got wet. We all watched as Becca tested the waters. Yep, still cold. But not so that she couldn't at least put her feet in . . . well, maybe sit on the ladder . . . Ooops! I fell in!

Bizzy, of course, recorded everything on film and caught us all in stages of wondering if the lake will ever warm up so that we can get in? Sure, it will.

BOATS FINALLY IN?

Update: Since these pictures were taken our lifts have been placed and the boats removed from storage. We spent last weekend putting the boats in, with the water being quite chilly. Bizzy and Colton rode the Jet Skis over from the launch, after Bizzy and Becca rode the yellow Bombardier speed boat over and tied it up at the pier.

Once they were all put in, the water valet (that's me, of course) gingerly lowered himself into the ice cold water and maneuvered the boats onto the lifts for summer mooring. We will update the blog with boat pictures soon.

WATCHING THE HIGH SCHOOL RIVALRY GAME AT THE GARY RAILCATS STADIUM

The Ratliff's and Colton Hill enjoyed a game at the Railcats stadium, the Steel Yard in Gary.  The group enjoyed watching Knox complete a big win over North Judson.

We were guests of the Farus family. Mr. Farus is a superintendent of one of the large sections at the steel mill (he oversees nearly a thousand workers) and his wife is a secretary at the high school. They invited us to sit with them outside their box on the upper deck. We had a great view of the field. It was a tad chilly, but a great night overall.

Yes, we made it in and out of Gary with no problems. Not a bad little ball field if I do say so myself.


In the picture below, you can see all of the high
school employees, teachers, coaches and students who came out and watched with us.

Becca decided to stay at Grandma's, which was good, because she didn't want to make the drive to Gary and Grandma's cable was up and running. Hello, Disney Channel!

Below: The Knox team in their dugout during warmups. It was an exciting game, with lots of hits, plays, and runs scored. Knox defeated NJ 5-4.

The Last Picture of Winter

LAST PICTURES OF WINTER


Bizzy took these as the ice and snow was melting off the lake. You can see the remnants at the lake's edge. These were taken in February, however, long before the spring break trip to Indy and the Easter Egg Hunt. As you can see, Becca loves her white coat, which is very hard for her parents to keep white (several washings a month!).

Bizzy caught Becca reflecting about the lake and wishing summer would hurry up and arrive so she could go swimming. We told her that water was too cold and would be so for some time.




Bizzy took a picture of me while I sat beside the water's edge. That concrete lip I'm sitting on is where we put our pier in during the late spring. The concrete walk leads up to the patio we had put in last year.

Easter at the Lake

EASTER AT THE LAKE


As winter came to a close, temperatures began to climb to unseasonably highs in the 70s and 80s. Around Easter time, the temps settled back into the 60s, and spring felt like it had finally arrived.  The Ratliff-Sanders clan celebrated Easter, which was the weekend following Spring Break, at the lake.

The annual Becca's Easter Egg Hunt, took place on the meander land of both ours and Mom and Dad's. Biz and I hid over a hundred plastic eggs for Becca to find. It took her nearly 20 minutes to find them all, whereas it took us nearly that long to hide them. Some were even hidden on the deck by the lake. You can see the lake and how nice it looks behind Becca in the third picture.

Grandpa Claude sat on his golf cart and watched the action, even helping Becca to the point of pointing her in the right direction.
Fun was had by all.

Claudia and Russell came out to the lake and we had Easter dinner at their house (it's only 10 houses down the street from us). We love that they are so close and we get to see them often.

In the bottom picture, the property line between our meander land and Mom and Dad's runs between the pile of firewood and the shed. In fact, Dad often grouses about how the shed's back corner extends onto his lot by a foot. Hey, what can I say? It was like that when we bought it. The patio furniture to the left is theirs, while ours are to the right just out of the picture.