Family, Food and Fun at Buckeye Lake

Saturday, all of my Ohio cousins gathered at the lake. We started out on the lake with the majority of the family on the pontoon boat while Steve and Bailey and Lon and I enjoyed the jet skis. After our fun in the sun and on the water, we made the short walk to Marilyn and Dick's Buckeye Lake summer home on the corner of Island View and Cranberry Lane for the rest of the day.

Marilyn (in the pale blue shirt) is my mother's cousin and Dick (in the white cap) is her husband. Their children are Lynnette (whom you know already), Steve (in blue t-shirt), Scott (in green shirt) and Jolene (in the bright blue top). Jolene is married to Sam (in dark cap and white t-shirt) and their daughter is Bailey (the lovely young lady).

We appreciated the efforts made by everyone to come to spend time with us. Everyone lives in the Columbus area but each drove about an hour to meet at Buckeye Lake (except for Scott who lives on the same block in Buckeye Lake.)

We enjoyed a delicious meal beside the pool. Alice grilled marinated pork tenderloin and Lynnette fixed corn-on-the-cob and a broccoli salad. Marilyn brought deviled eggs, Steve contributed his highly renowned toffee cookies and Bailey brought yummy snickerdoodles she had made.

After dinner, we played an outdoor game called Corn Hole. It's somewhat similar to horseshoes except you attempt to pitch bags of corn through a hole in a target. We had loads of fun with that and before we knew it, the day was behind us. It was hard to say good bye to Marilyn, Dick, Steve, Scott, Jolene, Sam and Bailey but the time had come and so we did.

On Sunday morning, we packed our suitcases and loaded the truck. We drove around the corner to Lynnette and Alice's for breakfast. They're one house away from the corner of Island View and Dockside Drive. We found breakfast laid out for us on the table on the deck. The morning air was balmy, the lake was still quiet and we seemed to be the only people stirring. Our last hour at the lake with Lynnette and Alice was like frosting on a cake. We commented on how fast the time had gone and how fortunate we were to have had such perfect weather the entire time.

With difficulty, we said our good byes to Lynnette and Alice and slowly drove to the corner. We turned at Anchor's Way and passed Scott's house on our way to the highway. After passing the city of Columbus we drove under the arch and left the state of Ohio with hopeful plans to return again.

It's a blessing to have family who are more like good friends than relatives.