wrapping up new york

where did i leave off. oh yes, mom and dad were going to pick up dylan and kelly. after they stopped in harmony, pa to see where the priesthood was restored, i met up with them in bath for dinner. the evening was a quiet one, i think we played cards. we played a lot of cards..rook, and nerts, and more rook.

that brings us to tuesday...

tuesday it was playtime. it was hot, but hot matters less when you are on the water.

before getting started though, i headed to the teahouse to check in on things and give the dog a good walk. many years ago my grandfather built a japanese teahouse with a glass for over a waterfall on the property. when he died he was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn that lies at the top of the steps to this peaceful place. there are a few of you who also know that the teahouse is the setting for my death in the family film '10,000 deaths' that we put together at the reunion a couple of years ago. if you have no idea what i'm referring to, than you simply haven't had the privilege of viewing this indie film yet. i'm sure it would have taken sundance by storm, had we submitted it.

but i digress. the walk was hot, but the teahouse was still standing, and that was a relief!

after making my way back down to the house, dylan, kelly, and i did some skiing. well, they did some skiing.

as i mentioned, kelly was determined to teach me to slalom. originally i had planned on skiing with two skis first so i could get up on something, but her point about not reminding my body of what it felt like to be on two skis was completely valid, so i began attempting the feat with only one ski. i will say this. i was close.

but eventually you just wear yourself out, and i was tired. so i begged for the other ski and the instructors obliged. well apparently, i had worn myself out more than i realized and couldn't even manage to get up on two!! this was extremely frustrating, as i have been skiing since i was a young tyke. but there were a few days ahead of us, so i was optimistic.

we spent the large portion of the day on the water--we played and swam, and my aquapac came in handy yet again. it was awesome to be in the boat again, but i learned that my idea of a good time catching some serious wake-made waves and throwing the tilt to max) is not everybody's, and i think i terrified kelly a bit. eventually we made our way back to the apartment and washed up for dinner where we were joined by grandma. after dinner it was time for yet another tradition, and we headed to penn yan for ice cream at seneca farms..which is absolutely divine. i had some chocolate peanut buttery yumminess in a cone, and the rest of the gang had some shake and flurry variations going on.

and then there was wednesday...



wednesday morning dylan, kelly, and i stole wireless from the best western and headed back when we learned that the other van atta crew (aunt judy, uncle scott, and cousins, jeff, jamie, and mark) were on their way.

basically we spent the whole day goofing off. my body was so achey from the ski attempts and the crappy sleeping conditions that skiing wasn't in my cards, however, spending mucho time on the boat was. not to mention getting a lift on the jet ski my cousins had just bought. i've probably been on a jet ski before but i don't remember it, and it was fuuun!

after getting our fill of water for the day, it was time for dinner and celebrating judy's recently past birthday. my cute cousin jamie had some fun with the blue icing on the cake, but she made need to use crest whitestrips in the near future!

we finished off the cake and played games until it was time for them to head back to rochester.

thursday...

was completely chill. mom, dad, dylan and kelly went to palmyra, as kelly has not been to any church history sites before. i opted to take some personal time and spent the day reading, watching movies, and hanging out with cyra on the dock. it was fabulous.

the gang returned that evening, and we killed more time playing cards (one of my favorite vacation past times).

friday was a little different...

one of grandma's normal helpers at the b&b was out after having her wisdom teeth removed, and we were tapped for some manual labor. so we all headed up the hill to do dishes. after bonding over soapy water, we all went our separate ways. mom was off to geneva for shopping, dad was up to his usual scanning at the apartment, and dyl, kelly, and i were back in the boat.

it was far too choppy for skiing, so we decided we would give tubing a shot. the last time i was tubing, my uncle drove so fast and furiously that i was getting insane amounts of air--and hitting the water hard. there was another time that a different uncle nearly got decapitated while tubing, so i was a bit hesitant. but i didn't let it stop me. dylan was an excellent driver and i had a blast. we all agreed that it was most fun when you had an opportunity to get caught in the giganto swells off the wake.

after gasing up the boat, we swung by the house where we found dad in a canoe on his way to meet us. he paddled back to shore and we did a drive by pick up before tubing some more.

saturday...

we got up for breakfast at the b&b again, and oh was it divine. some blueberry cream cheese thing and a banana flambe type thing. wow. after indulging ourselves all but mom took the golf cart to make our rounds of the properties landmarks; majesty in the field of dreams, the labyrinth, the tree house, the tea house, and the lady of the lake. we found all were as we had left them.

we dropped off the golf cart, packed up and headed out, saying farewell to another fabulous week at keuka lake.

sadness.

there are of course, a million photos, and you can find them all here. i'll also be uploading some funny videos in the next couple of days..keep checking the 'videos' link in the pics|video menu to the left.