Devil's Lake

Elias' 3rd birthday was pretty low-key.  It fell on a Monday.  Saturday was his daycare's picnic, so that sorta took the place of a party.  I brought a cake, but ended up bringing much of it home.  Elias enjoyed repeatedly blowing out candles over the next couple days. 

Monday I took off work and we went to Devil's Lake State Park.  It was a gorgeous day in a gorgeous place.  We had a blast swimming in a lake--one of the few times I've swum in a lake, and a first for him.  The north end has a wonderful wide, even, sandy, gradual dropoff that was perfect.  Elias is fearless in water, and has been taking swim lessons, but still hasn't mastered the backfloat.  He kept walking out deeper and deeper until it went over his head and he'd cling, sputtering, onto me...and ask me to go out further.  He loved being thrown high into the air and plunging down into the water, coming up laughing and yelling, "More, Mommy, more!  Higher, Mommy!"

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and several swimming sessions.  I got perhaps my most painful sunburn ever, my whole back, although I hardly peeled.  All in all, well worth it (although, yes, I should've put sunscreen on me, too).  Elias fell deeply asleep shortly after loading him into the car, giving me the chance to stop a few times on the way home to snap some pictures of the beautiful countryside.