Saranac Lake

On Saturday, Rich headed back into Lake Placid super early to get a practice swim in and to make his final drop off of gear for the race on Sunday.  While he was doing that, we spent the morning hanging outside of the cottages with the Conley crew.  Gotta love when you're reunited with friends when it seems as if no time has passed at all.  

This is the only picture that I got of the cottages-there was a lot of green space behind them and ours was really quite homey.  It had two bathrooms, 4 sleeping spaces and a pretty large kitchen/eating area. We were pleasantly surprised by it when we arrived!  Our cottage is the last one in the picture.

Ella wearing her Lake Placid shirt, which just happened to be a hand me down from the Conley girls!  So fitting for the weekend!

The kids had a blast all morning-they played baseball, went exploring, ate donuts, and just played so nicely together for 2 plus hours!  And, while the kids played, Carrie, Lindsay, Mike and I just relaxed outside talking and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Rich arrived a little after 11 and we decided to head to Saranac Lake for the rest of the day.  Crazy story but the Conley family met this awesome family on Thursday as they were en route to the cottages but there was an awful accident so the roads were closed...long story short, the family invited the Conleys to their amazing home on Saranac Lake and they spent the night there Thursday night and then invited us all back for the day on Saturday.  It was a perfect afternoon and such a beautiful location.  

We picked up sandwiches on the way and spent the day swimming, fishing, relaxing and just hanging out.  It was a perfect day!  Here are a bunch of pictures from the day.
The view as we drove down the driveway to the house-long driveway-the house was situated right on the lake.

This is the home (or part of the home)

After lunch the kids went swimming (a little too chilly for the adults) but they had a blast!

That's Joseph out on the dock!! He and Ben swam out there all by themselves, jumped off and then swam back, actually, Joseph wouldn't jump but he did swim all the way there and then would sit on the dock and kind of roll into the water and swim back.  He did it twice and was so proud of himself and Daddy and I were very impressed that he made it that far by himself.

What a view!

Part of their property!

After swimming for a bit, we headed down to one of the docks and the kids fished.  Everyone caught fish (even Ella!)  and had such a fun time.  

Love these two!

Joseph's first fish!  He was so excited!

And, Ella's first fish!!!  She's pretty proud of herself!

So thankful that Lindsay was able to spend the long weekend with us!!  Wish we lived closer-it was so great!

Claire and Joseph caught a fish at the same time so we had to get a picture of it!

Good friends!

SO pretty!  It was such a perfect day relaxing with friends in such a gorgeous location!

Our family left around 5:00 to make our way back to the cottages to make sure we were all settled in and ready for a good night's sleep before race day.  We stopped at an Italian restaurant on the way back for dinner and made it back to the cottage in time for my mom, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Derrick to arrive for the night and for the big race the following day.