Lakeview

We are home from our trip to the lake. 

Daddy is back to work and our refrigerator is empty from being gone for a week., so that must mean our vacation is over.  It is always bitter sweet reliving a vacation. 

Beautiful to see all the time we spent with family catching up and getting to know each other again, and sad because it will be many weeks, even months, before we see some of them again.

It was a fulfilling time with lots of laughter and giggles.

We left last Wednesday just when the sun was setting after Bubba's baseball game.  It was very late to start a 10 drive, but with two of us to drive it was manageable. 

{Bubba at his game}

Around 6 o'clock in the morning we entered Tennessee. 

We had stopped at a rest stop to rest for about an hour and 20 minutes, but other than that we had driven through the night.  Getting to Mom's house just as people were waking up for the day, vacation officially started.

{This girl knows how to relax}

I have never seen the weather so crummy.  Each day was filled with rain and gray clouds and speckled with only a few moments of dry weather.  Occasionally we saw the sun.

It didn't stop us diehard water bugs though. 

The kids and I were in the water everyday.

{Cousins}

When the rain was coming down to hard to swim, we found things to do in the house. 

{games}

{watercolors}

{and lots of card playing}

 

 

 

{Brad, Brooke and Lil Miss} 

{Mason, Lincoln, and Nick} 

{Brad, Brooke, Faith, Dennis, and Denise}

{Uncle Scott and Lil Miss}  

By Sunday afternoon, most of the family had gone back to their homes, but not us. 

We got to enjoy a little more time with mom.... and wouldn't you know the sun finally came out!

My mother celebrated her birthday on Monday and we got a game of tennis in and played in the sun to our heart's content.   

 

 

 

 

The girl's helped me make a cake for grandma Judy's birthday. 

Their favorite part.... licking the beaters.  

Grandma Judy had already blown out candles for her birthday on Saturday night with the whole family, so we decorated her Jello cake with pinwheels I had forgotten in my bag.

  Oh and we, for the first time, all week were able to eat outside for every meal that day!

Grandma even went with us to the playground and helped us make sandcastles and played basketball with Bubba.  I think we wore her out!  LOL  

 

It was a fun vacation. 

We didn't want to leave yesterday, but reluctantly we did.

All the fun, water, and playing with cousins wore us out, and we slept good in our own beds last night. 

We had dreams of our time at the lake. 

Good memories...

 

Nothing is more memorable than a smell.  One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains. 

diane ackerman