Scott body surfing

Always entertaining for me and the kids. Don't know why we haven't tried body surfing before now, but it turned out to be loads of fun!

End of Summer boating

We took the boat out this final Holiday weekend of the summer for some fun. The lake is pretty low since we haven't had rain this summer so everyone had to pile into the boat and I had to swim out to get on after I parked the car/trailer. The nice thing is that we did get some rain last week and so the water felt nice and cool. Usually this late in the season the water feels really warm and it isn't even refreshing to jump into. We tried a couple new things this time and had some fun body surfing. They day would have ended on a great upnote if I had some backwards driving skills at all and it didn't take me forever to back the trailer down straight and while doing that I bent the hand crank and Scott had to fix it so we could get the boat on the trailer. I think I may be officially grounded from helping. Scott was so very patient with me though. I know there are a lot of pictures, but I love taking them and couldn't choose.

Ethen body surfing

Phoebe and Ethen before taking a hard spillEthen being a great big brother and helping Paisley

Phoebe body surfing

Scott Surf Spin

Memorial Day Vaca 2011

This year we had a little vacation for our Memorial Day weekend camping/boating trip. We drove about 3 hours out to East Texas and camped at a place called Lake O' the Pines. The campsite was very nice, well maintained and all the giant pine trees made for some great shade. We spent 3 nights camping and had two other families join us for part of the time. Ethen brought his friend Chandler with him and Phoebe had Tierney join us as well. With 2 extra bodies and all our gear we ended up taking 2 cars to get everyone there. But I think that actually worked out nicely to separate the kids a little. We ate lots of junkie camp food, got dirty and played in the water to our hearts content. I love these simple kind of vacations. They don't require too much planning, everyone has a great time and is worn out afterwards.

This lake is FULL of clams. Phoebe decided to cook one up over the fire. She couldn't get anyone to try this dish.

the kids enjoying a mud bath that later turned into a mud fight
All mud fights end up with at least one casualty. I was pretty sure this crying was more for show than hurt. Seriously such sick mud.

It was Luke's birthday the day we started. Can't quite believe my little man is now 6. He wanted a cookie cake and I was thrilled with how great that would work out for camping!

O Captain, My Captain

Ethen and Scott double surfing

nightly ghost stories
A leisurely ice cream stop

Nana & Papa Are HOME

Nana & Papa are back from the mission and came to visit last week. We packed a lot of fun in a few short days. It all went by so quickly. We miss them A LOT already. There is nothing like having your Mom and Dad around, even when your grown up. Here are some pictures of our day at the lake. Papa never gave up and had success on the surfboard. It was so fun to watch him get up on the board.

Cliff jumping

We went out to the lake for a couple days of camping and boating and found this great spot to jump from. We think it is about 25ft. Phoebe amazes us with her bravery. It took her only a few seconds to decide to jump and she did it over and over again. How many 8 year olds do you know that would do this?! Here is a video of Scott, Phoebe and our friend Sally jumping.

On the lake again

All the boys

Scott getting some BIG AIR

John catching some air

James wakeboarding

With James in town for a bit, we had to hit the lake again! Scott took us out to Lake Lavon for the the 1st time. He had a few rentals there in the last couple weeks and really liked it. The water was nice and cool without a lot of traffic for a Saturday. I had the thought to tell James to put on the helmet for one of his rides and it was a good thing because he had a pretty hard wreck. I think he felt a little rattled in the head for a bit. The padding in the helmet broke off a little, so it was a hard crash. But the rule is the bigger you go the harder you can fall. So go big or go home :) At first is seemed like everyone was wrecking a lot in the morning, but that settled down after awhile. Everyone had a great time!

Me and my little bro


James

John
This one is so funny of John