It was probably the last big weekend of the summer but it was a really good one. The weather was perfect, cool at nights and in the mornings and hot in the afternoons. Suzanne, Josie, and I got there first on Friday afternoon and got the grocery shopping out of the way. Mike Lynch (Maddog's brother as the kids call him) and two of his kids, Maddie and Zach, arrived next. Scott, Jalen and Brayden met Luke, Doug, Maddog and Goldman at a rest stop on Interstate 70 and caravaned the rest of the way and arrived in time for Doug to set up the new stainless steel grill and cook burgers and hot dogs for dinner. He had to Home Depot on Saturday to get matching stainless steels barbeque tools. Suzanne says his day isn't complete if he doesn't make a trip to Home Depot.

On Saturday the kids all played in the pool and the lake most of the day. Suzanne brought battery powered water guns for them. Goldman wonders just how much easier life is going to get for kids!!! The boat was running fine - first time in 2 years. Brayden was the bravest one of the kids to ride the waverunner. The driver couldn't go too fast to suit him. Doug cooked steaks on the new grill for dinner. When the guys are there without any women, no matter what they have otherwise, their vegetable is always fried potatoes. This time Suzanne made them eat corn and baked potatoes instead of the fried potatoes. There was some grumbling but they cleaned up their plates.

Rose and Shirley arrived late Sunday morning. They donned their bathing suits and set off for the pool and then the boatride. Brother Joe, Dave and MarEllen arrived from Springfield after stopping for a quick lunch which took over an hour. They shouldn't have stopped. The several courses started shortly after their arrival when Maddog began frying the insides of potato skins for our first course. Ray, Trish, their two children Taylor and Tanner, Trish's parents', Donna and Terry, arrived by boat to complete our group of great guests. The children all played very well together. Goldman, even though he is a teacher, strikes very little fear in them, no matter what vhe threatens. He had been promising Jalen that he would demonstrate a back flip and give Jalen some pointers. Jalen held him to his word and Goldman did a pretty impressive backflip but he would NOT do another one.

Scott got the boat out and took a group for a spin. I had bought this big round red thing that holds 500 pounds, seats 3, and is supposed to spin as you pull it behind the boat. We finally figured out that the weight on the 3 places for seating has to be evenly distributed to make it spin. Scott thinks that for even distribution he would be on one seat, Goldman, and both Lynches on the third seat. Rose looked pretty good on it but she and Brayden didn't make an even distribution. Dave and MarEllen rode off on the waverunner with Dave driving. MarEllen was driving when they came back. We were never sure which one of them caused them to dump cause they blamed each other. Dave went in to greater detail about his splash so maybe MarEllen was driving. The two of you will just have to show us and do it again where we can witness it.

The next course for our meal was crab rangoon. I think this was a joint effort on the part of Scott and Suzanne. At this point Shirley said she was up to her extra weight watcher points through December and we still hadn't had any fish for the fish fry. Doug had been catching fish for a big fish fry for a few weeks and he had accumulated a good bunch. Denny used to catch fish in the very same way, using minnows for bait, fishing at the same depth, fishing anytime he had the chance day or night, fileting them when he cleaned them, and probably lying about how many he caught. Doug deep fried them on the sun deck and we all ate our fill. They were as good as we remembered. Denny would have been proud of him. The final course was the outsides of the potato skins dressed up with bacon and cheese. These are Maddog's specialties and, full as we were, we managed to do justice to them.

Marge and Norm went to the Valley this weekend and came back this morning. Catrina and the kids joined them but Robbie had a side job.

Chris ran 20 miles on Saturday in preparation for his marathon. Shelly is going to run a half marathon the same day and ran a long way in prepation but I forgot how far, but it was a long way. I've been walking 1 mile a day and that's a long way.