The Castle Home: 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.