Memorial Day Holiday

I LOVE having Monday's off. Three day weekends are the BEST.

Especially this one because when I return to school tomorrow I only have 14 days of kids left.

That is very exciting.

So thinking about this puts me into the "How shall I spend my summer break?" mindset. Other than the usual, what do I want to do with myself? I don't get bored very easily so maybe nothing but the usual sounds good.
HMMMMMM.
So we are winding down the month over at Art Journal Journey. Just a little bit of time left to squeeze in another journey themed page.

And with it being late May, it is just a few more weeks of school until summer break. The kids are getting so antsy to finish this years school journey. I am too actually. There is something very exciting to finishing up the school year and being to refresh a bit before starting fresh in the fall. So here's my page for AJJ. This is what the end of the year can feel like.
Saturday was so summer like it was hard to imagine that there was even any school left. I mentioned yesterday how we went to my mother in laws for the afternoon as she lives on this pond. We had a fun afternoon... until this unexpected visitor arrived.

 And yes, there I am in the water. It was a little cold going in, but it was 91 degrees outside (almost 33 degrees Celsius).  I actually went in 3 times. And I had the honor of the first person of the season to go in and actually swim.

 My daughter and my niece are here-floating around and chatting. Our dog Maddie decided they were having more fun so she swam out to them.

 My husband put in the swim raft and then swam out and relaxed on it himself. Everyone went in except my mother-in-law.

 And Maddie was swimming after some sticks. Our other dog didn't go in. He had more fun chasing butterflies and dragonflies as they fluttered over the water.

I also did a little reading, in between swimming and chatting. And we all enjoyed our afternoon cocktails in the sun.

But then, as the afternoon got closer to evening, our uninvited guest arrived. We just called him Bruce. I will refer to him as Bruce.
So anyhow, I was in for my third swim, floating on the same float you saw my daughter on, lounging near the dock and chatting with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. And my mother-in-law notices something in the water, swimming close to the shore than me. This was enough to FREAK ME OUT. I screamed like a girl (no shame in that) and jumped off the float and swam out deeper. Everyone was laughing at me, but only because they were glad it wasn't them in the water. When it was safe to get out of the water, I did, and I thought, that will be the end of it.
So I sit back down, and after a little bit I look down and noticed two pieces of rope on the back edge of the dock, There was a blue and white rope and a brown and darker brown rope.
And I asked if there was rope there My mother-in-law says-"Oh yes, its some old rope." And my brain is racing because I know we've had blue and white rope, but the other rope, is it just dirty old rope? So I get up and move out on the dock, and my sister-in-law quickly follows me and mouths "There's a head."
She's freaked out too.  I can tell.
My mother-in-law said Bruce was more afraid of us than we were of him, but he wasn't was he? Since he came out to warm himself in the sun while we were sitting there.
Meet Bruce.

About a 3 foot long northern water snake.
Gives me the creeps just looking at him.
So we hurried up to the house for dinner and we had to have a couple more drinks just to calm our nerves.

 And a yummy dinner. And talked about Bruce a lot while we ate.  We were still traumatized I think. Well my mother-in-law wasn't. She has nerves of steel at 82. She and my husband chased him off and he swam away. We hope he never comes back.

 It was a gorgeous sunset after dinner.

 My husband had a box of fireworks he had bought for New Years Eve, but with no snow cover he never shot them off. So he decided we needed a little evening entertainment.  We kind of worried Bruce had returned, but luckily not. He could hide really well under cover of darkness if he was there.

My phone doesn't take the best photos of fireworks, but its what I brought down to the dock with me. You get the gist. It was a really fun day, except for Bruce. But its an adventure to start the summer and a good story to laugh about over and tell-as long as he doesn't come back..
Hope I didn't go on too long. Thanks for stopping by.