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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Family Time

We packed up the kids & the car and after a 7 hour pretty uneventful trip (miracle) landed in Tennessee to visit my Dad & Linda at their lakehouse.  Dad & Linda were extremely gracious - Linda 'relocated' all of the breakables, they had life jackets ready, great food, good wine, and were up for lots of adventures with the girls.  Dad has a pontoon boat & a jet ski & the girls were game for it all.  I was a bit surprised at how fearless they were in the water.  That is after Jillian was assured that there were no sharks, crocodiles or whales in the lake (I think I let them watch too much Animal Planet).  We were either on the boat or in the water.  They had a blast!


Dad giving them their first boat ride there.

Abi jumping off the boat.  She also 'swam' to the dock one day - about 80 yards.  I was surprised & impressed & hoping that would help her go to bed earlier.  No such luck.  Darn TN doesn't get dark until at least 9:15.  Go Vacation!
Jillian & Arturo jumping off the rocks.  This was Jillian's second jump - the first was by herself.  Abi also jumped, but unfortunately had a bit of a belly flop & did not want to try again.  Who blames her, eh?

Dad bought these cool rafts with water pistols & the girls had a blast squirting everyone.  Even Stella enjoyed it.

The twins loved the water too, and Stella was pretty self-floating with the vest on - and it was a good thing b/c she rarely wants help.

Jillian as the Captain.  A face of controlled contentment.

Linda was a great help with the girls & made some delicious meals.  Yeah Linda.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed tubing and the jet ski.  Dad did a great job of giving them a thrill of a lifetime without necessitating any trips to the hospital.
The little marina had a school of Carp that loved dog food & old bread & the girls had a blast feeding them(the twins also loved the old bread & thought it should NOT be wasted on the carp).  We visited the carps twice & both times the girls had their hands in the water petting them, feeding them & enthralled with every moment.  As we were leaving the second day, Jillian said "Bye Bye.  You guys are my new best friends forever!"  It was cute.

I was very proud of how well the girls got along.  They were probably too exhausted to fight much, and they really played & shared well during this trip.  Yeehaw!
Overall we had a wonderful time & will enjoy going back (even better when the girls are older) to try it all again.  Thanks Dad & Linda for a wonderful time.

8 comments:

Jocasta said...

That looks wonderful!

It's so cold here today and I'm so looking forward to Summer!

Laurie said...

WOW!!! That looks like so much fun. How I would love to get on a boat again. The girls look like they had a fantastic time.

Mrs.Naz@BecomingMe said...

Awesome pictures. Looking forward to us living closer to all of you!!

Jaime said...

How fun! It looks like your kids had a blast! Great pics!

girlytwins said...

What a great vacation. It looks like so much fun.

Debra said...

Oh SO FUN!!!

You braved a trip!

You ROCK!!!!

I have yet to do that.

Trooper Thorn said...

How far in advance do we need to book with your Dad and Linda? Looks better than Disney.

Lyndsey said...

What fun pictures! Looks like you guys had a GREAT time :)

The bows only stay on their heads for the picture if I am lucky.. otherwise they hate them .. haha.. so I put the camera on action mode and move quick