Lake days

Since the kids got out of school, we have spent lots of time at the lake. We have gone up every Sunday after church or on Saturday and spent the day swimming and riding the waverunner. Dad & Sarah are staying at the lake house 5-6 days a week now and hardly ever come home. They enjoy being up there so much.

Sometimes we take Jake and sometimes we don’t. We took him last weekend and he had an absolute blast!! He has gotten really used to the water. Sometimes he even jumps in without permission if someone is already swimming. Sometimes we put his lifevest on and sometimes we don’t. We mainly use it to help up get him out of the lake and back onto the dock. He tries to climb the steps but just can’t. He still loves to sit on the float and float around. He splashes the water and catches it in his mouth. He drinks a ton of water while he is swimming. But he has very good manners and won’t “go” in the lake. But when he gets out, he goes potty forever!! Haha!

The other day we took a tennis ball for him to chase in the water. We would throw it, he would jump off the float and swim to it, grab it in his mouth, and swim back to us and get on the float again. He enjoyed the game. And then it happened….he spotted the big bouy out towards the middle of the lake…Lake Allatoona….on a Saturday afternoon….with a lot of boat traffic! He thought it was a big ball and he was going to get it!! We called him, but he ignored us and kept going after the big ball. He swam out there an tried to get it but didn’t, so he swam back. Luckily, he got back safely.

Did I tell you the same thing happened when a duck swam near us one day? He flipped out and chased after the duck. I thought it was kind of funny and figured the duck would fly off but instead he turned and headed toward the middle of the lake with Jake right behind him and Jennifer right behind Jake and Justin right behind Jennifer and me right behind Justin. We were yelling for him but he had “DUCK” on his mind. Finally, I guess he got too close for comfort and the duck flew off and then they all headed back toward the dock. I’m sure it would have been funnier to watch it from out of the water and not have been swimming and trying to decide when to call the kids back.
This last weekend, Jake jumped in the water 5 times by himself. He always goes to the steps and steps on the top step and then jumps from there. He even would swim to the side and get out if someone was on shore calling him. This worked out very well. He also kept sniffing Dad’s fish this last weekend, which was Dad’s fish that he was hoping to use for bait and he was scared Jake was going to try to eat one.

But there was hardly anyone there this last weekend, so Jake got to run free-without his leash- and he was one happy dog. He stayed close by and played with Riley (my uncle’s dog-a lab) and Sugar (Dad’s dog – a shitzu). He left the new kitten alone for the most part. HE also went down and played with some other dogs that were up there. He even brought a bone home from their house, but din’t chew it since there were so many fun things to do up there. He doesn’t get to do this very often, but he thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Jake also chased down the waverunner when a member of his family was on there. We have talked about putting him on there but I don’t know if he could stay on. Dale has to take off and go fast so he will turn around.

We even spent the night up there with them one night this Summer-with Jake. It’s a small place but we slept 4 adults and 2 kids and 2 dogs in there pretty comfortably. It was the first time Jake had not slept in a crate since he came to live with us. He slept beside me and Jennifer and did really well. I also have never slept with a dog leash in my hand. And I didn’t do so well. :) I didn’t sleep good but it was fine. I was worried that Jake would get up and go roam around and wake someone up or go find their dog or trip anyone getting up in the middle of the night. But, he slept until about 3 when he woke me up kissing me in the face. I used the down command which he obeyed and went right back to sleep until about 6:30. I was very pleased with how good he did. Now they have adopted a new kitten so we will have another pet in the house if we do it again.

We always enjoy spending time with Donnie and Kathy as well when we are up there. But this summer, we have gotten to spend time with Jennifer(Kathy’s daughter) and her husband Matt. Matt has a bass boat so he comes up a lot too. It has been nice to get to know them both better and we are looking forward to more fun times at the lake with them.