TORCH!

Eighteen miles long and 2.5 miles wide of beautiful deep blue, turquoise, and green crystal clear water. Yes. Please. Plus an unusually warm summer = unusually warm water. This was a bomb awesome year at Torch Lake. The weather was unbelievable. Usually being that far north in Michigan we get a few days of clouds and possibly some rain and in general chillier weather at night. Not this year. It was fantastic!

 I hadn't been to Torch Lake since summer of 2009, right after Chase and I got engaged. He came along too. Stephanie also brought Spencer (then boyfriend, now husband). Along with Tim and Patrick plus of course my parents, it was a great time, particularly watching Spencer flip his wakeboard over a skiier. Confused? See pic below:

Patrick being super chill

Flash forward to Torch Lake 2012. While it was just me and Patrick that could make the trip this year, it was worth it. Let's talk about how different it was for this second child in the line-up (out of 5) to have a week of individualized time just with my parents (plus one brother). Patrick is super easy going, so whenever my parents asked us what we wanted to do for the day, he said he'd do whatever I wanted to do. At first, I just played that back on him, saying I'll do whatever he wants to do. But then I made a suggestion...and (omg) that's what we ended up doing! What is this? I am used to 5 kids haggling and attempting to compromise, and then either majority rules or my parents have to step in and mediate. This is weird. Not in a bad way, just different. So I soaked up as much special time with my mom and dad and even just Patrick and me (soccer tennis, scrabble, boardwalks, tubing, swimming) as I could!

Hanging in the bow of our boat

The view from our porch

Yea...my mom can still slalom ski extremely well. 

My dad can still ski...well, he can just still ski.

Patrick being a skiing fiend

Gorgeous lake. Gorgeous sky.

The view from the kitchen, through the living room, over the porch. 

At the sandbar

At the dockside with mom and dad