North South Lake

Allison, Taylor, Emily and Kate in the creek, their favorite place this trip

I just realized that I loaded all the photos backwards chronologically speaking. So I will have to recap the week in reverse. LOL. So for the last 4 years we have been taking a camping trip to North South Lake in Haines Falls, NY. We are never there alone... we are always with Rich's family... my father-in-law and his wife, her daughter Jennifer and her husband Adam, their 2 children Jackson and Jacob, Rich's sister Gretchen and her husband Bob, their 2 daughters Taylor and Emily and this years we were joined my Rich's oldest sister Nancy, her husband Rich and their 2 sons Richie and Robbie. The first picture is of Kathryn and Allison as we played at the "beach". I put the word beach in quotes because it is the upstate version of a beach with dirt more so than sand. It is also a lake... and that means no movement like the sound or the ocean, and it is just so different. I usually avoid swimming it it, and on this day we all had to stay out because of overhead thunder. Below is a photo of Katie with Emily her cousin... again waiting the 20 minutes until we were thunder-free. By the end of the week we had so warm and humid weather... that after swimming in the lake- and subsequent showers- we all decided to not get hot and sweaty again and took a ride to Catskill. Within the last year since we have been up there, Catskill has gained a Wal-Mart. Below there is a pic of the girls playing the Wal-Mart... staying cool.


This is a picture of Rich's dad with some of his granddaughters. They were getting ready to take a walk around Loop 5. This a view of campsite.... we were lucky to have lake front site this year. It is sooo beautiful. It is an incredible feeling to wake up and look outside to see this sight. It is positively breathtaking!!

Bob, Gretchen and I took the girls horseback riding... Rich stayed back to "watch the car" (wink wink) He doesn't like such large animals. Katie was able to ride by herself, but Allison had to ride with someone else. I have had too much experience and didn't feel that comfortable having her ride with me. Her choices were to ride with the guide (yeah right) or ride with her Aunt Gretchen- who has lots of experience riding. We had a blast on our hour-long trail ride... we saw some beautiful sights... including a spot that they claim you can see 5 states. I am not 100% convinced. The whole rest of the ride I was trying to figure out which states, and if were really possible. It was very distracting. So I figure it is New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and possibly Vermont. But whatever.
Below is a picture of Rich at our site, we bought the girls fishing poles, so he spent tons of time teaching them to fish. They actually started at home by practicing in the swimming pool. LOL. One of the favorite things to do there is biking. We usually on a daily basis we ride the bike on the trails that take us around the entire lake. I am pretty proud of the girlies... the made the entire trek even though they have bicycles without gears. Allison especially did well... considering she only just learned to ride a two-wheeler early this spring.

The girls and I took Pop-Pop's canoe out on the lake, and I was thankful to have Katie to help me paddle. The Lake is beautiful, but in areas there are lots of lily pads, which can sometimes make it difficult to paddle through. Allison got a little ticked off though, because every time Kathryn paddled and switched sides.... she got some drips of water on Allison which did not make her happy.

Traditionally we always visited the Catskill Game Farm every year... Rich and his family have been going every year since he was a kid, and we went many times with the kids and even before the girls were born. Last fall when we traveled with his family to stay at the cabins in Leeds, NY it was to get together, but also to say goodbye to the game farm. They closed after over 70 years of business. It was sad for everyone... and I believe we had over 20 of us there for the last weekend. SO this year, we chose to take a group trip to Howe Caverns.... I hadn't been there for many many years and the girls had never. It was fun, and informative. We had 18 of us, so we formed our own tour group. Here is a photo on the left of us all 175 ft below ground.
Just a picture of our trailer and campsite... from the lake view! Below is a picture of my sister-in-law and her family... from left - is my nephew Richie (21 yrs) my sister in law Nancy, my nephew Robbie (18 yrs) and my brother in law Rich.

Katie and her little cousin Jacob!!

Aunt Jen and Jacob at the "beach"

We took a hike through a creek... the girls loved exploring the creek and trying to guess where it may lead.
Taylor, Katie and Allison exploring and trying to catch fish and other creatures that can be found in the lake

This is a photo of my father- in -law and his two beautiful daughters.

Katie is trying out her new fishing pole off the bridge... also Allison getting a little help from her Pop-Pop with her pole.

All of us managed to sit at the same table. :)

One of the best parts of this trip was the amount of time spent with our family. We are blessed that we all live close, but everyday life gets in the way and we don't always get to spend a lot of time together. We had this week to hang out, chat, eat, and laugh. It was great!!