The Lake

Dear Abigail,

(Yes, I am behind, but it's catch up time now! This was 2 weeks ago today...)

Oh boy, did we have an exciting weekend!! On Thursday, we headed to the lake (Center Hill) for a long weekend of doing nothing, well, okay, not nothing, but a 'as much as we can make it doing nothing' weekend with the gang! So we all had to take separate cars due to the massive amount of stuff each of us insist upon taking, even though we do construct a well thought out list in order to prevent repeats, but somehow, still a motherload of stuff... anyway, we got their first, and started immediately unpacking that aforementioned motherload, made some dinner, sat down to eat it only to be greeted by Ellie and Uncle Jaybe and Aunt Steph!! Perfect timing, huh!! We helped them unpack, put you girls to bed, and waited on Ryan & his crew to arrive. And boy did we wait... I'm pretty sure it was past midnight when they arrive :) just teasin'. They did finally arrive, with Ryan asleep, so the first night was spent relaxing. Oh, you ask where were Miss EP and Mr. Jay, and the all so adorable Baby Grant? Well... Mr. Jay caught a yucky stomach bug and had to postpone the trip, but don't worry, it was only for that day. They joined up with us on Friday afternoon!

Oh, and I was so proud of you. You slept on an air mattress on the floor in our room all night long! I wasn't sure how that was going to turn out for us, but looks like you were a champ yet again!

So Friday morning we started getting things ready because we were headed to the water! That's right, your first boat ride!! You were so excited, and so was Mommy. I heart the water, and I'm pretty sure you are going to, too!!

You loved looking over the side of the boat, watching the water just fly by ya...

And you just liked to chill, while cruisin' on down the lake...

After a lot of cruisin, we stopped and took a little dip in the water. Mommy got in with you, and so did Daddy, so we didn't get a single picture. Maybe Mr. Lee will send me a couple - he was too chicken to get in, so he just took pictures from his camera! Something about the water being too cold - whatev! It felt great! Okay, well, as long as the sun kept shining on you, it felt great!! After a little bit of swimming, we found a bank to park at and let you kiddos wonder around. You LOVED this little get up! You loved finding the rocks and throwing the rocks, and you got to swim a whole bunch without Mommy being super worried. Let me just tell you, that little pink lifejacket you got on is the BEST ever!

After a good lunch (thanks to Aunt Ashy for those AWESOME recipes which we all devoured...), it was decision time. What do we do about naps... From the start, I was convinced given the right situation, you would fall asleep on the boat. Granted, you may not get Mommy's preferred 3+ hour nap, BUT, you would get something that could tide us over until bedtime. So all 3 mommies decided we'd give it ago and see if we could get all three of you down to sleep on the boat, so nobody would have to go in. Well, we started off laying all three of you down on the back of the boat, singing some songs, rubbing some backs. All 3 of you knew it was nap time, and did actually lay down, but one head would pop up, then the next one, then the next one. then you'd hear a noise and sit up, that would make Ryan sit up, and so on and so on... UGH. I was determined to get you to sleep on this boat. I've seen it a hundred other times before with other peoples babies, so it was happening! I decided we needed separation. So I took you to the front of the boat where me and you laid in the seat, told Uncle Jaybe to turn it up a notch or 2 on that speed, and let the wind blow in our faces. Would you believe it, within a minute you were out! Of course, now what do I do. The sun was beaming in your face, my arm was going numb from the position I had you in, but what to do - you were sleeping! Don't wake a sleeping baby!!! Well, Miss Leigh decided napping on a boat was not Ryan's cup of tea, so we dropped them off. Then I moved you to the back of the boat (i.e. the shade)

And Ellie, well, Ellie was still struggling... But not for long. Uncle Jaybe decided to leave one wheel and take the other! He grabbed Ellie, and let Daddy drive, and bam, out she went!! Can you believe that!

Finally, both of you were out...

Now what do we do??? We decided we'd just cruise for awhile, enjoying the scenery, including the quietness!! Both of you did wake up a little while later, but I will say, I was pretty satisfied with what we got, considering the circumstance, you know!! Now Ryan, that's another story - I'm pretty sure he slept for 4 straight hours!!!

Once you girls woke up, we decided to take you to the park. Yep, that's right, we went to a park on the lake!! You just bring your boat up right to the dock, jump on off, and enjoy the playground! We had a good ole time, especially you, my little monkey! Seriously, every time we'd look up you were swinging from something, or climbing something... Thank goodness I got you in those gymnastic classes (yes, more on that in a later post!)...

After one more dip in the water, which turned out to be pretty nice because the temperature got on up there, we headed on back to the house. We fixed you kiddos a good dinner, fed ya, and then got you in the bath - together of course!!

And yes, while Baby Grant can't quite get in the bathtub with you kiddos right now, he was happily watching right outside!! We are anxiously waiting for the day he gets to join in the fun (and, more importantly, deal with the embarrassing photos later in life!!!).

Off to bed you kiddos went while the parents enjoyed a dinner sans kids! Yes, we planned it that way!

The next morning we decided not to get back out on the boat, so what were we going to do...

Well, you begged and begged Miss EP to let you hold Baby Grant and so she let you!! First, let me start off by saying you LOVE you some Baby Grant! You always ask if you can hold him or "he sit in my lap". And most of the time he's sleeping or about to sleep, or eating or you are eating or you are just plain dirty and grimmy! But finally, the stars were aligned! You were so excited AND you were soooo proud!!

After a good dose of playing Mommy, you were beckoned to our room for a wardrobe change - that's right, it was picture time!!! See, Miss Leigh's mommy made every one of you the cutest outfit, all matching of course. It all started when Mommy started getting the fall clothing catalogs. We saw these cute lettered shirts, all wanted one, then Miss Leigh decided her mom could just make them exactly like we wanted! So she did, and we had been waiting for this moment for a long time!! Of course, as you may remember, Mommy has experienced the drama that comes with taking photos of more than one toddler/baby (i.e. Clara Lee, Emily and you... enough said...) not to mention the 1 million times we've just tried to get a picture of the ya'll together, non-posing, non-matching!! So I warned everyone, and everyone was prepared. We had the boys go set up the bench outside, I took a few practice pictures, we made sure none of the kiddos escaped and got dirty, and off we went to get these pictures!! AND, wouldn't you know - you all cooperated! Every last one of you. Baby Grant was just perfect, Ellie was her usual behaving self, Ryan totally cheesed it up perfectly and you, you actually listened when Mommy asked you to sit still on the bench!!! What in the world!! Here are some of the best ones I was able to get...

Now, I don't want to down play it or anything. It wasn't like the 3 of you just hopped on up there. We had Uncle Jaybe with the bubble gun, going crazy, Mr. Lee and Mr. Jay were ready to grab anyone that jumped off, Daddy was holding the bench as he was convinced it was going to flip over at any second, and the Mommies were all acting like crazy trying to get you all to smile, without knocking anyone down!! But, I will say, it went so much better than I thought! And so that's why we moved on to the rocking chairs!!!!

Of course, I tried to get a good pic of you and Ellie, but Ellie was not digging you that morning - even after you tried to give her kisses...

After the modeling session, the Mommies and the kiddos went to the park and the Daddies ventured to none other than Walmart... don't ask. and don't bother asking what they came home with either. Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Uncle Jaybe came home with an Elmo shirt. FOR HIM. And Daddy came home with a camoflauge UT hat. Which, if you know your Daddy at all, is SO not him. I don't know - that's what happens when you let boys out of the house. Anyway, we were getting ready to head to the park and low and behold you and Ellie go missing...And then I found you...

yep, that's right, your babies were playing with Baby Grant's toys, or at least that's what you told me. So, off to the park we went...

As you can see, we had a good ole time. There was only one potentially fatal accident involving you... See, they had 4 slides, going from small, to medium, to large and then HUMONGOUS! so not kidding. Anyway, you decided immediately that you wanted the humongous one. Well, I thought it would be fine as long as I was climbing behind you and Aunt Steph waited at the bottom for you... Nope. See, you slide with your feet down. Or rather, you don't quite get that you pick up your feet to go faster, or to go at all. So about 2 or 3 feet down this humongous slide, you come to a halting stop, which made you jolt, and then heavily lean to the right, to which I saw the fall coming and all i could do was scream a bad word while i was at the top of the slide and Aunt Steph was at the bottom. Thankfully you were blessed with a smidge of balance (unlike your mother) and were able to catch yourself, readjust, and continue on down the slide. After I recovered from my minor heart attack, got down the ladder myself, and hugged you, I decided it was the small slide from then on out... You so would have broken your arm... how would we have played gymnastics with a broken arm??!!

Anyway... after the park we headed home to get you kids some lunch and then a nap - perfect timing for that football game that was coming on!!! Well, it never works out like you want, does it... You struggled, no doubt, and after multiple trips into the room to get you to lay down again, I finally got you to sleep with a little TLC - okay, fine, I laid in the bed with you and within 4 minutes you were out!! And poor Ryan, let's just say that 4 hour nap the day before was catching up. Miss Leigh had to get the car out for him (i.e. the ole fall asleep in the carseat trick we used to pull on you!!) Anyway, so, you were all asleep together, finally, for about 5 minutes... We got to watch maybe 15 minutes of the game baby free. Ellie woke up first, but she enjoyed sitting with us in the 'cave' (another story about the game watching arrangements...). And then you woke up not too long after, but I thought you might just go back to sleep, since you hadn't really had a good nap especially considering the eventful morning we had already had. So I let you cry for a few minutes, and then you got quiet again - saweet!!!!! I'd say 30 minutes later you were up and about, talking and carrying on, so I decided to go get you. Oh boy - nope, you weren't sleeping, not at all. Instead you had found Mommy's purse, to which you decided to take EVERYTHING out of it. You opened my pen and decided to write all over my planner, and not just on the inside. You tore lots of paper out of it and then further decided to tear it into pieces. You took all the cards out of my wallet, all the chapstick out, all the tissue out of the container, everything. That whole time i thought you were sleeping.. should have known. So, now you are up, and the game is on - the Florida game, might I add... Aunt Steph decides to get the Sister-in-law of the Year award and offers to take you and Ellie upstairs for a snack and little afternoon play time. You guys end up painting all of us a pretty drawing and even got to play in the pool! I love this little shot of the 2 of you. It makes me think you are in Hawaii or something, with mountains in the background adn what looks like a little flower in your hair (of course it's a bow!!).

So Mommy and Daddy both ended up watching most of the game, with the exception of Mommy not watching the ending, which is fine because I'm pretty sure I would have been miserable if I had to actually watch it all go down at the end... Anyway... after another group bath, a good dinner, and a good bed time story, you kiddos were down and it was another peaceful dinner with the adults! The next morning was spent quickly packing in order to make it home for the Titans game - yep, as usual, football rules our lives!!!!

A great lake weekend!! Mommy can't wait to go again! love you little lake girl!