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One of my favorite days this summer was getting to drive up to Massachusetts with Jim and the big kids to go to an amazing outdoor adventure park. Jan watched Tazie since it was a little too advanced for her (although not for long!), and so the rest of us got to enjoy the alpine slide, the chair lifts, and mountain coaster. It was a gorgeous day, and the drive was beautiful. Everyone had a great day – especially Tazie, who had her Bubba all to herself!
Here are the girls with the ENORMOUS balloon my parents got the girls for their birthday!
I just couldn’t get enough of the view from our lake house. Stunning!
On our last day of vacation, Jim walked the kids down to the dock for a last hurrah: They spotted something in the water they were intent on fishing out: A mussel (I think!?):
What a great crew! Grammie and Granpda, thanks for making this year so wonderful!
We stopped at Cabela’s on the way home to Connecticut. Tazie liked the animals! And all the kids liked the hats!
We had the amazing opportunity this year at Deep Creek to reconnect with my cousins Jennifer and Chuck and their families. It was SO good to get to know their kids better, and to see how much fun our kids had together! Many thanks to my Aunt Sharyn and Uncle Allen for making it all happen! Here’s a selfie Susie took of her and Chuck’s younger daughter:
The four girls loved paddle boarding!
Chuck got to take his first-ever jet ski ride!
Jim pulled the girls around the lake on the tube:
We had a marathon French braiding session! Such lovely ladies:
Don’t forget sweet Tazie!
Hot tub chats:
More helping Grandpa with his boat:
Jennifer’s husband and sons brought all the necessary supplies and brainpower to make an impressive potato gun: Jim demonstrating his drone goggles:
Wouldn’t be a family reunion without a game of cards! No pinochle this year, though (we needed the other side of the family for that!) – just Uno!
We wish we could have had more time with the cousins. It was just so good to be together again! My dad continued his multi-year project of building his own remote-controlled toy sailboat. We didn’t end up water-testing it this year, but we have high hopes for next year!
Grandpa also took some time to play bumper pool with the kids (Tazie’s a quick study!):
Here’s my mom supervising another one of the awesome activities she brought for the kids – rock mining!
Aunt Angie and Uncle Kevin unfortunately weren’t able to stay the whole week with us, but we sent them off with big hugs!
We made sure to hit the go-karts again this year:
And these pictures from a gift shop cracked me up:
More pics to come! Here are some more boating pictures from the week. I miss being out there!
And some more pictures of us hanging out, enjoying the slow pace of lake living!
So, I’m excited to post the pictures from our Deep Creek trip – I’m only about a month late! 🙂 We rented a home with a beautiful lakefront setting this year. The past few years, we have also been lakefront, but access to the dock involved a steep trek down a hill to the water, and we wanted to see how we liked having a shorter walk. The verdict? We loved it! I mean, how could you not love this view??
My parents quickly settled in with their arts and crafts:
And we settled into frequent boat rides, and even though the week’s weather was inclement, we made the most of our pockets of blue sky (or at least, no rain)!
Uncle Kevin showed the kids how to fish, and we even caught a few! We did more paddleboarding this year since we were in a quiet cove with fewer waves. Even Tazie took a ride! We tuckered out our little Tazie with all the fun!
Here are some more quotes I dug up from a while ago (I think they’re all the way from last year!): Me: “Where do you want to go out for your birthday dinner?” *********** Jimmy, referring to the meal I had cooked for him: “This dinner is halfway between disgusting and good.” *********** I heard Danny crying and asked the usually guilty party: “Jimmy, what did you do??” ************ I was doing Tazie’s hair and said in exasperation, “Tazie, stay still!” Susie overheard me and quipped “Asking Tazie to stay still is like asking a cow to bark…it’s not going to happen.” ************ We were sitting in a church meeting and someone asked for prayer for a friend who had been rear-ended. Susie got a horrified look on her face and whispered to me, “Did she get hurt in her rear end??” ************** All during a meal I was riding Jimmy about “sitting like a gentleman, chewing like a gentleman.” After the meal, he got up to clear his plate and I called after him, “Jimmy, please clean up all your crumbs!” He answered, “Gentlemen don’t clean crumbs – they have servants to do that!!” ************* I saw Tazie walk by me in the kitchen when I thought she was in the basement playroom with Danny behind the baby gate. Me: “How did you get up here, Taz?” When Bubba flew with Jon and Kate home to AZ, she brought Becky and Susie along for another week of fun with their cousins. So that left the boys, Tazie and I at home to have our own fun! That fun involved playing with frogs found in the pool:
…and building the frogs a “fort” in the yard:
And we also made our second annual trip to see the Monster truck show. It did not disappoint!
Tazie was a little more fearful this year at first:
But she soon got over her shock at the noise and was loving all the stunts!
The boys also had fun dressing up in costumes that week. See Jimmy’s creation with the glowing eyes? I thought it was pretty genius of him to drape a scarf over a pair of night-vision goggles!
Danny also came up with his own creation – a removable scar: What will these kids think of next? Who knew bubbles are extra beautiful on humid days? We have plenty of days like that around here!
Click here to see some old videos of the kids learning to blow bubbles – we’ve come a long way! 🙂 Well I think I’ve come to the last of the summer cousin pictures. It has been so much fun to go back through them, remembering all the fun outings and games. Here are some more precious moments together! We got Jim this hammock chair for Father’s Day, but I think the kids have enjoyed it even more than him!
We ate lots of ice cream together this summer: We visited batting cages so Jon could show Jimmy how it’s done: The girls passed on their love of dress-up and make-believe to Tazie: And of course there were many, many giggly slumber parties!
We even had a visit from Alli and Erik, so ALL the cousins were together for a weekend!
The kids had so much fun learning to wakeboard and wakesurf, and there were many wonderful hours of tubing as well. The activity occasionally wore Tazie out – here she is asleep on Susie’s shoulder: Alli is the best!
There were motorcycle rides:
And bicycle rides:
We miss the cousins so much – we can’t wait until our next adventures together!
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