Lake Burton, Georgia

Lake Burton, Georgia 

July 14-21, 2014

Long before the responsibility of mortgages and kids when the most pressing decision was what's happening this weekend (and how much beer we should buy)...

During the 1990's a group of people who have become known as the Usual Suspects gathered for what I call our High Holidays... Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day Weekend.  In the beginning we were a hardy group, camping in tents on the islands of Lakes Lanier and Hartwell in Georgia.  In 2002 we bought our house on Lake Burton, since then we've become soft.  Twenty of us, give or take a few,  spend one week together every July (the week of 4th of July if possible).  Our week together has become even more special as we've become more spread out with one family living in Louisville and us now in Sweden.

The lake house, a.k.a. the commune.... 10+ kids, 10+ adults, two dogs, one bunny, (minus one dog and one cat left behind in Sweden). 

Lake Burton - I love how the house smiles... the hammock (smile) and umbrellas (eyes)

 

We are a finally tuned machine with spreadsheets for meals and supplies.  We jokingly call each other sister wives but we couldn't do without it each other.  Each person knows what needs to be done and does it whether it's cooking, prepping for meals, dishes, laundry, applying sunscreen (x10) or watching the kids in the water.

breakfast!

business as usual - Scott prepping 10 lunch baskets... a few years ago I discovered how much easier baskets are with kids... less spilling and easy cleanup!

homage to bacon... we love bacon!!  We cooked 20 pounds for 20 people over one week this year... not exactly a record to strive for

yes, we even have a kid schedule for dishes

the meal spreadsheet

Dinner each night is our main event.  We are known for our gourmet, competitive cooking, usually trying new recipes each time.  Everyone brings copies of their recipes and leaves them clipped to the refrigerator.  Over several years I collected the recipes from the refrigerator and organized them into a cookbook.  We do have some tried and true favorites (Drive-in burgers, John's French toast) and classics like hamburgers and hotdogs... all the meals are amazing, we never go hungry.  A few years ago we got smart and built in some 'leftover' days because we always cook for a crowd and have too much food. 

Drive-in burgers!!

orzo salad - served with amazing pork medallions and blue cheese sauce!

John's French toast... custardy perfection, no syrup necessary!

churro ice cream sandwiches for dessert

dinner inside due to rain

The kids have grown up coming to the lake.  This year it took them 30 seconds before they were all in swimsuits, wearing life jacket 'diapers' (put on through legs instead of arms, so you sit in the jacket), floating in the lake, talking and laughing. This year they made friends which each other in their own right staying up until midnight or later playing cards, talking and laughing some more. When asked what they talked about at night Gabby replied that one night they talked about public bathrooms, another they took a bunch of selfies (stretching the no electronics policy a bit!).  While the kids were tubing I overheard one topic of conversation... favorite pies... So far nice innocent stuff.

Clark, Gabby, Ben, Audra, Taylor and Maddie - October 2003

2014 - the kids reconnecting after a year apart

Ben, Maddie, Taylor, Gabby

Sofia and Ella diving for colorful stones

Taylor, Sofia and Audra

playing cards on the dock

late night selfies

Taylor's note

2014 - Official kid picture - Ella, Maddie, Audra, Katie, Ben, Zeke, Gabby, Taylor, Sofia

From the beginning we have had a no electronics policy (including tv) at the lake, meaning everyone hangs out together, plays games, etc.

Gabby, Taylor, Katie and Audra

Maddie, Ben and Clark

for once the bunny Sofia is hanging with is real - the girls enjoyed one week with our bunny, Goober

Along with the traditional lake activities of swimming, tubing, wake-boarding and water skiing (the kids learned here) we have created many of our own traditions: 

• at the end of a tubing run, before docking the boat we stop near the house, the kids jump off and swim in

swimming in from the boat

• to the side of our dock is the 'secret spot', a hollow area under the trees overhanging the water... when the kids were babies they loved swinging in a baby swing through the water there.  Now the kids play and build with rocks in the secret spot.
• water tether ball and zip lining through the yard

water tetherball - girls vs. boys

• most afternoons we pile in the boat and head to one of the marinas (the 'old'  or the 'new' one) for ice cream (and mango margaritas for the adults)

afternoon treats at the marina

ping pong at the 'new' marina - LaPrade's

• the kids like to swim at the shallow spot in the middle of lake
• when the now 13 year-olds were five they went to Camp High Harbor day camp for five years... we were a machine of backpacks, sunscreen and life jackets to get them to camp every morning at 8:30
• kayaking and swimming across the cove burns off extra energy
• sometimes the group will go to nearby 'sliding rock' on Wildcat Creek
• surfing behind the boat - it's usually the dads... my favorite was the time the kids talked trash about who's dad was a better surfer while they videoed them!
• for the past two years John has driven his VW camper bus up for the kids to sleep in.  Tom and Kelli also set up a tent... which the kids had a blast in this year.

John's VW camper

• two years ago Scott created our own version of Carly Rae Jepson's popular song Call Me Maybe... this year we're anxiously awaiting the Lake Burton video version of Get Lucky by Daft Punk (G rated)!!  

getting direction for the video shoot

• morning starts on the screen porch where the early risers quietly hang out until the rest of the house is awake 

hanging out on the porch

morning, Lynda and Ben!

the Currie girls - Maddie, Jewell, Taylor and Katie

• birthdays and Fourth of July fireworks... which are amazing for a small lake community and because everyone on the lake anchors out in their boats to watch the show

  

  celebrating O'Jer's birthday!  We celebrate several birthdays here... Lynda, Henry, Audra, Nancy

• dance parties, old-fashioned Tiger Drive-In movie, boating to the dam, jumping off friends' boat houses, group book reading, growth chart, fire pit

the kids' growth chart

s'mores around the fire pit

• We've run the Lake Burton Fun Run (two miles) from 2006-2012, missing the last 2 years.  In 2012 Gabby placed third in her age group!

Gabby - 2012

• 2012 we decided to hold our own Duck Tape Regatta, three teams (4 kids and 2 adults each) had to build a boat, each team had a sheet of plywood and a roll of duck tape...  the finished boats had to be paddled from one side of the dock to the other

Luckily we've only had a couple trips to the emergency room 30 minutes away.  When Audra was two she 'fell' off a kitchen chair and knocked out a front tooth.  It wasn't until this year (eight years later) that Audra and Gabby confessed that Gabby pushed Audra off the chair.  Nice.  The second trip was at the end of a week of day camp, Katie had a fever, a trip to the ER revealed H1N1 (swine flu) which was big that summer.  After 20 prescriptions for Tamiflu were written we were lucky that only a handful more got sick. 

the summer of H1N1!

I am sure I've forgotten to mention many things, too many late nights playing cards or sitting around the fire will do that!  For now we have pushed PAUSE for another year and are already looking forward to next summer.

twilight on Lake Burton - Cherokee Cove

sunset

this boat house has a had the Statue of Liberty on it forever... everyone uses it as a point of direction

the light fixture I created... the lake house is filled with an eclectic mix of kitschy fun (if I do say so myself!)

Tucker - sleeping with his humans but not wanting to miss anything

one tired dog

New Hampshire

1997 - Jan and Marshall buy a lake house on Kingswood Lake in Brookfield, New Hampshire.  Gordon and I, newly dating, go to visit and Marshall professes his love for Gordon after he fixes things around the house.

June 27, 1998 - Gordon and I get married on a beautiful, sunny evening on the dock after an very rainy NH 'mud season'.

Seventeen summers later, all year long, we look forward to and talk about the two to three weeks we spend in NH every summer.  Jan and Marshall host a continually changing set of house guests, our parents, Suzie, Sam, Nick, Steven, Sandy, Aaron, Sarah, Rick, Lorene (Gordon's mom).

the Ledbetter family 2010

Aaron, Steve, Marshall, Sam

Steve, Sandy, Aaron

Suzie, Nick, Sam

Audra, Sam, Nick, Nancy, Sofia, Gordon, Gabby

Nick, Audra and Gabby - 2004

Sofia - 2010

Audra - 2010

Portland Seadogs with Unc and Aunt Jan

Sofia spent a summer peeping through keyholes

painting the old chicken coop - and eventually themselves

We've had a lot of perfect summer days for boating, kayaking, paddle boarding, swimming, swim and sailing lessons, biking, spotting loons, deer and even a bear.  Painting the old chicken coop for a clubhouse, 4th of July parade, tether ball, baseball, kubb, putt putt, Cate Park Wednesday night volunteer band, golf, yoga on the beach, full moon paddle boarding, Portland Seadogs ball game, road trip to Boston and more.

Gabby and Sofia SUP 2014

Gabby and Audra 2014

Sofia 2014

roasting s'mores 2014

Putter's Village 2014

 

as a two year old, Audra crawled through this covered bridge

wonderful bike, walking path along an old train track

2014 - the summer Sofia refuses to touch the water because of bugs and snakes

it was fun this summer to have a little bit of time with just the three 'original' sisters and the three younger sisters

the original sisters

Albee Beach - public swimming, beach yoga and sailing lessons

beach yoga

Albee Beach is always good for spotting a group of ducklings who sometimes wander through the yoga group

Uncle Marshall's dream come true... the girls golfing

the girls' bunk room

We've had a lot of rainy summer days for exploring The Libby Natural History Museum, the NH Boat Museum, a NH glass blower,  games-rummikub and Phase 10, reading, puzzles, art projects, lego sets, and more. 

We've had really hot summer days forcing us to move into the basement for coolness.  Depending on the dates we attended the annual boat auction, craft fair, or Huggins Hospital fair.  Each summer we usually spend one  day at Sherman Farms picking produce for the Sanbornville Food Pantry.

We've had septic issues, an invasion of black ants, a broken refrigerator and a few trips to Huggins Hospital for poison ivy and one broken arm. 

Daily trips into Wolfeboro for newspapers and fun things at Black's, Downtown Grille, Stella Luna cinnamon buns, Bailey's Bubble, Yum Yum Shop gingerbread men, Thursday afternoon farmer's market, yoga at Moondala studio, and The Country Bookseller.

Wolfeboro, on the edge of Lake Winnipsesaukee, claims it is "the Oldest Summer Resort in America".  Former Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, has a home in Wolfeboro, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy vacationed here in 2007. Drew Barrymore has spent time here. Jimmy Fallon, is the latest famous guess, whose in-laws have a place in town.... he named his daughter Winnie after the lake. 

the most popular spot in town, always busy, open late, the workers never write a thing down, no matter how long your order is

2014

Wolfeboro Back Bay

the Yum Yum Shop - celebrating 65 years!

Yum Yum Shop gingerbread cookies

Wolfeborough Diner - known in our family as 'Echo' - when Sofia was about 3 years old she went into the tiny bathroom with Aunt Jan and yelled 'echo' over and over because the acoustics were great!  The entire restaurant could hear... Gabby, Audra and I paid the check and waited outside. 

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon skit

if only they had this t-shirt in Gabby's size

the squirrel butt we found in an antique store in Cornish, Maine

Gabby's favorite restaurant is C&G pizza in Sanbornville, replacing the previous favorite, Poor People's Pub.  Garwood's and the Wolf Trap in Wolfeboro are reserved for date nights.  Grams has also taught Gabby how to make her favorite cherry pie. Mostly though, we cook and BBQ at the house...  this is my favorite, a time-lapse video Gabby took of 14 of us preparing a big lobster dinner for 4th of July in 2013.

first stop, pick up dinner at C&G pizza - 2014

Audra celebrates her birthday in New Hampshire every summer... she's has butterfly, puppy dog, baseball, and art parties.  We celebrated mom and dad's 50th anniversary and memorialized the passing of Jan and Marshall's sweet dog, Mookie by planting a dogwood tree in the yard.  

Audra's dog birthday party... Aunt Suzie made dog ears for everyone to wear

Rick and Sarah at Audra's puppy dog party

50th wedding anniversary - 2001

Gabby 2001

Jan and Mookie - things do not feel the same in the house without Mookie, our shoes stay where we put them.  We always used to have to hunt for missing shoes because Mookie liked to carry shoes around and would leave them everywhere. 

Several years ago Jan started the tradition where we all sign the underside of the long, wooden farm table where we note the highlights and year of our visit.  It's funny now to look back and see the old messages and signatures. 

The only thing wrong with New Hampshire is leaving.  Every time we drive away the girls are in tears and I have a knot in my stomach.  We are already looking forward to and planning what we'll do next summer!