We arrived over the weekend. The kids had been talking about this small vacation for weeks now and were thoroughly excited to try out our new "cabin". Here they were all enjoying the deck across the back of the condo and watched as Adam parked the "party boat" as Emerson likes to call it.
This summer, all of the kids overcame their fears, each one taking a turn doing something behind the boat. Peyton has gotten quite a bit of confidence on the jr. skies, while the others did a mixture of the training board, knee board and of course the tube.
Emerson tried to do the training board but had a little trouble so I decided to give him some confidence by letting him "ski" with me, haven't done two skies in quite a long time. Look at his big smile! He was so thrilled with the whole experience, he laughed and waved the entire time…Cypress Gardens here we come!
What a fun time we had. Being that we were there during the week we pretty much owned the water. I was amazed at how few boats there were, it was perfect weather and smooth water for learning to ski! Adam usually wake boards but decided that he wanted to tackle the slalom ski and he did!
We enjoyed just chillin' all day long. Our days consisted of something like this: fixing food, swimming, putting food away, then skiing, followed by more snacking, and floating around. It really was quite relaxing.
We were determined to not let the kids get sunburned like last time, so we used a sunblock stick for faces and it worked like a charm! (This was before we rubbed it in.)
These precious little people were sharing the Oreos, oh how I loved this moment. It was a beautiful afternoon in a lovely location…it was pretty precious.
Unfortunately there were a few harry moments on the trip as well. Within the first few moments, in the kids excitement to look around, the master bedroom door got locked on the inside and we had to pick the lock with a meat thermometer! It's never a dull moment! Then there were several times that we "misplaced" a few kids. When you're in a house with two decks, four outside doors and twelve people who are coming and going, it's bound to happen. We inadvertently left one of the kids locked in the car for a brief period of time, one got locked out of the house and was outside on the deck for a few minutes by herself and another locked himself out in the garage. As you can see, we had lots of trouble with doors and locks, but no permanent damage was done and we all learned the lesson, if ever you get left in the car, crawl up to the drivers seat and lay on the horn or try to unlock the car and get out!
These cousins had fun hanging out together, I was glad that we got to spend some quality time together.
One evening while we were cooking dinner, Whitney and Rob took all the big kids and went geo-caching. My boys had never done that before so they were excited to give it a go. Unfortunately, it was hidden quite well so even though the GPS said they were all over it, they never were able to find the hidden treasure. We'll have to try this again sometime soon, I hear that it can be so much fun!!
One afternoon we found a cove that had a rope swing hanging from one of the trees and the kids thought that was awesome. Uncle Rob helped all the kids get up on it and then swung them out over the water. We all got to watch as they squealed and screamed with excitement! I know this simple fun was a big hit from the week.
Dad taught us a new card game called Hand and Foot (its similar to Canasta), we watched movies and there were many rounds of Hide And Go Seek.
We ended the week with dinner in Hot Springs. Balloons are always a fun treat!
Who'd have thought a meat thermometer could do the trick? Hats off to you, friend. One thought occurred to me while reading your post and that was that I hope you have your water gear locked up. While the lake might be a very calming place, you still shouldn't let down your guard in terms of security.
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