Bye to Summer at the Butte

I've been waiting all day to write this post. I've been waiting for the pictures from my waterproof camera. Once again Walgreens disappoints. They ruined my film. There are no pictures on that camera because they ruined it. I always chide myself when I take other pictures, just in case. This time the just in case paid off. I have some pictures from my iPhone when I felt like it was safe to use it.

Yesterday we went to Elephant Butte Lake with Kyle, Myra, Kellie, McKenzie and Papa. Kyle and Myra's usual lake at Red Bluff is too low for them to go, so they came here. At one point yesterday, I even told McKenzie I was glad their lake was too low so they would come to this lake!

After we were sunscreened up, ice chest packed, and life jackets on,

we hit the water.

After we took a little 'weltie', as Joey calls it, since Kyle had never been there, we found a nice little cove to get wet and have some sandwiches,

blew up the tubes, and gave rides. Most of my tube ride pictures were on the camera that Walgreens murdered...(what is going on with me and people murdering my pictures??)...but I did get one of all four of them on the last tube ride of the day.

Between tubing and tubing and tubing again, we swam (pictures on...or not on...camera), chillaxed

and ate some more.

Joey wanted to show Kyle and Myra the little houseboat community, and I'm pretty sure Papa wanted to see if Bobby Watson, his bff, was in his houseboat. He was in luck,

and Blaine was in heaven showing the kids around.

Since he had been there before with his Daddy and Papa and even got to spend the night, he thought he was the king of the castle. And the girls let him.

Bobby told us about a hamburger stand on the lake where you could just pull your boat up to, dock, and eat. Since we were all hungry again and ready for some hot food, we decided to check it out. It was really cool! It was a floating hamburger joint!

Our first hitch of the day came at the very end of our day. Just as we finished eating, we saw the clouds start rolling in. We trashed our food, jumped in the boats, and headed out. Right into the storm. Thankfully, though, it went as quickly as it came, and the misery was short-lived.

It was already 8 o'clock, though, and we still had to drive back to El Paso, so we docked the boats and said goodbye to the Butte.

It was a great way to say goodbye to summer and start school tomorrow. I'm so glad these two sillies

brought their boat and their girls to come to the lake with us. I'm also glad Papa decided to join us.

So tonight I say good-bye to summer, and tomorrow I will say hello to school days, and 8th grader, and a 3rd grader.