Hellloooo There!

Goodness, its been Forever since I've been on here!

Last week we took our first honest to goodness, real, week long vacation! Jim and his work buddy Jeremy got us cabins on a lake that just so happened to be right by my Kentucky cousins :)

Here the boys are, ready and waiting to start our wonderful 10 hr trip south....yes....in the truck...with no tv or dvd player...and for the record, the benadryl was kept packed in the travel bag under boat tarp and not used ;) We all met up at the Petro in Rochelle....I wish that I would have thought to take a picture of the caravan of boats! (3 pickups and 3 boats must have been an odd site...especially since one was a fishing boat, one a souped up Malibu and then our little bayliner!)

We arrived without too much drama and took it easy for the rest of the night-



I think that the boat dock rental was the best $30 we ever spent!!! It was super to be able to just walk down, untie a couple of ropes and just head out. Everyone left their tubes, jackets and towels hanging out...made me leery at first....if you have any idea how expensive all the jackets and tubes are, you'd be right there with me!

The water was a crazy green color under the roof of the dock, but seriously this was the cleanest lake I've ever been in!!! You'd get out and wouldn't have that ishy lake feeling...perfect!

Corey still wasn't too into the water...I think that if we would have been there a couple of days longer, he would have gotten into it more. But for now, he's happy with being the official tube driver!

On Thursday it rained like crazy in the afternoon! The houseboats were right out our window and that was all we could see....some idiot was sliding off the slide in the bottom left hand corner---it was lightning and terrible rain--what a nut job!
After the torrential rain stopped, we headed out to my Aunt and Uncles BBQ :) If you're ever in Celina (pronounced CelIna for all of you Yanks), this is the BEST bbq ever!!! Grab yourself some pork shoulder, a big sweet tea and a piece of my aunt's golden nugget cake and you'll never want to go home!
When we got back, this little guy (figuratively of course) had made his way up the drive to Jeremy and Beth's cabin. Little Baby A was so cute---hey FROG, I'm A!

This is Jeremy's little brother Tim (why is it that the little brothers always get talked into doing the stupid stuff?!?) The "frog" took his grape and then was on his way.
Every morning, I'd wake up before the others and walk the hill 'o torture. Do you see the incline of those lines..yeah...that's the road!!! It about killed this flat plain girl! Up at the top is Robert's loop, where all of the nice rentals are...murder getting up there...then you think--no prob, it's all down hill on the way back-- yeah...ALL down hill...legs of jello, drippin in sweat (cause even at 6:30, it was stinkin hot!!!).

By Thursday we were all getting a bit stir crazy (cabin fever in the summer...ha!)

This is Corey's drawing of us all...I'm the one sitting in the middle of the cabin table with crazy exuding from my head!

Friday was much better...thank you Jesus! We got to meet up with my cousins Sheri and Julie and their 4 kids...Jules had to go to work, but we took the kiddos and Sheri out for a spin! Zoey (the girl next to Riley) was a maniac on the tube! Jim hit a wake and she got some major air...it was her first time on a tube so I figured she'd freak. We brought her back in and I asked if she was scared---No, I rode a bull before---well, alrighty!

(Jaya, Jamie, Corey, Riley, Zoey, Gabby, and Zane)

Jamie got over his fear of the water from last year! He was such a hotdog on the tube and tried so hard to get up on skis...almost, but no cigar!

And then, before we knew it, it was time to hit the road....Riley is enjoying the last of Aunt Diane's stash that she sent with us :) man do I miss her food! (her cookies are to die for!)

So, that was the week in a nut shell...I'm still recovering...still feel like we're sleeping in a hammock, but today is a bit better :) Gotta love motion sickness and a boating vaca!