Family movie night on the lake.
With ice cream.
Always ice cream. It’s sweeter together!
*This post is sponsored by Dreyer’s. This story and all reminiscing about our time at the lake is completely my own!
If you follow me on Instagram, you might know that my family and I headed to the lake recently.
And by THE lake I mean, Lake Coeur d’Alene.
We’ve been renting a week each summer at “The Lakeside Loft” for 3 summers in a row. It’s about a 7 hour drive for us, and it’s something everyone in our family looks crazy-forward to every year.
While there, we soak-up not only the sun… but also family time.
My husband and I work to protect that family time, and we work very hard to make sure we get that week together. Away. It is easily my family’s “Happy Place”, and worth every effort made during the year to make sure we get those handful of days away together. I could go on and on about how my son is 17 and how we probably only have a summer vacation or two left as this *little* family of five… and time flies y’all… so take advantage of it.
And make it as sweet as you can.
Our time at the lake is definitely sweeter because we are together.
And then of course… there’s ice cream.
My. Family. Loves. Ice cream.
I would almost go as far as to say… ice cream is our love language.
It is present when we celebrate. When we relax. When life feels down. When we are bored. When we are not bored. And instead of cakes, we celebrate birthdays with ice cream.
None of my kids care for cake. Read: I haven’t made a birthday cake in yeeeears. We do bowls of ice cream. And blow out candles on a bowl of ice cream!
But back to the lake.
The house we stay at has a little gazebo on the deck. In the evenings we like to bring the TV outside and watch a movie.
And of course… eat ice cream.
Sitting with bowls of ice cream and watching movies is something that we LOVE to do as a family. Being at the lake is no different – except we get to do it all on the deck by a lake! I make sure to bring along items to add to our dishes of ice cream… that way I can just grab a simple flavor made with real ingredients, like Dreyers Simple Recipes Vanilla Bean.. and everyone can make the bowl of magic they prefer.
When at home, the toppings differ… depending on what I have on-hand, but in this case it depends on what I pack!
For this trip I packed peanuts, fudge, whipped cream, peanut-butter cups, peanut candy pieces, and fun waffle-cone-cookie things.
(Something else my family loves is peanuts and anything peanut butter, obviously)…
At home it’s usually a bit simpler… toppings often consisting of dollops of peanut butter and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. However, we were at the lake! I felt like adding extra-fun options to the movie and ice cream fun.
But the sweetest of it all?
This:
Hanging out. Enjoying each other.
Together.
This is a glimpse of our sweeter together.
It’s not because of the lake. It’s not because of the movie. It’s not even because of the ice cream. It’s because of all of it, mixed with us.
Family.
Sweeter together?
Sweeter indeed.
The flamingo floatie wasn’t to terrible either…
Be sure to swing by the Dreyer’s website to discover more about the new Simple Recipes line of rich and creamy deliciousness: Vanilla, Vanilla Bean, French Vanilla, Coffee, Chocolate, Neapolitan, Strawberry, Caramel Delight and Butter Pecan. Yum.
