|
|
|
|
The last morning of the vacation, we had what may have been the most memorable moment. Grandpa unveiled his long-awaited water-walking contraption! He had envisioned building some kind of a platform or trampoline for the kids, but he ended up being limited by availability of supplies, time, and willing water-walking participants. However, his creation was impressive nonetheless! Using PVC pipe, pool noodles, mesh netting that he sewed by hand, and an abundance of duct tape, his idea came to life!
Susie was the sole volunteer, but she lost her nerve after a tentative attempt.
So Grandpa decided to give it a whirl himself. He started off on top… …But ended up going for a bit of a swim and needing to paddle himself back ashore.
But my Dad has never let a little water dampen his ingenuity. We had a blast trying it out! He has grand plans for his contraption, which is now in pieces in our garage. He’ll give it a second life in our pool on his next visit! Following the water-walking-test, we packed up and left the lake behind. We said our goodbyes and gave our hugs. It was such a wonderful week together!
After parting with my California family, we made our way home. We stopped at a military museum and got to look at old bunkers, re-created WWI trenches, inert IEDs, tanks, uniforms, and more. It made quite an impression on us all. It was definitely a worthwhile stop!
Thanks to this year’s great weather, we were able to spend more time cruising the lake, via boat, paddleboard and kayak. I still feel like there was so much more of the lake we haven’t explored yet. So much lake, so little time! My always-favorite activity on our lake vacation is the hike we take to Swallow Falls State Park. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day, and everything was even prettier than I remembered it! We even started off the hike with a lost tooth (which reminds me, the Tooth Fairy never made her visit, yikes! I better get on that!).
This year’s vacation featured the best weather we’ve had in years at the lake, and we took full advantage of it! We hit all sorts of activities that the surrounding area had to offer, such as… Golf, Go-Karts and Arcade:
Our favorite lakeside pizza place with the best playground ever:
The ice cream parlor we access via boat:
And the mountain coaster and rope/zipline course (we were SO proud of all the kids. This was their first time participating in the ropes course. Susie and Jimmy chose the lower course, and Becky chose the higher one. They were all very brave!): Grandpa was a good babysitter for the boys while Becky was climbing overhead!
We rented a different cabin at the lake than we have in previous years, and we were very happy with the house as well as the location on the lake. The house was plenty spacious enough for us all, and the views were spectacular.
Grammie and Grandpa had filled their suitcases with all sorts of books, crafts, and activities to keep the kids entertained all week! Angie and Kevin formally asked the kids to be part of their wedding party, complete with little treasure boxes and Ring Pops. The flower girls and ring “bears” to-be were (and are) VERY excited! Angie and Kevin treated everyone to a home-cooked dinner while Jim and I snuck away to a restaurant for our belated anniversary dinner. The boys were eager students and everyone was very happy:
And even though this cabin didn’t have a grassy yard to set up our ladderball, we managed just fine in the driveway! Almost every room of the house opened out onto sprawling decks, which in turn looked out over the lake.
The top of the cabin, as seen by Jim’s drone:
It was a perfect spot for breakfast with my buddy: And for walking-stick construction: And just hanging out: The walk down to the lake was a piece of cake:
And let’s not forget that the cabin came equipped with a fire pit! The kids had a ball telling the family spooky stories (of course including Danny’s famous “one-eyed man”)! We spent a leisurely, blissful week at Deep Creek lake with my parents, sister and her fiance. It was a week filled with boating, hiking, relaxing, playing games, zip-lining, eating, and even celebrating Jim’s birthday! We started off our vacation by surprising Jim with a visit from our friends Matt, Maria, Ron and Tiffany and their sons. It was such a gift to spend a day with them on the water! We took the kids camping at the Connecticut shore for a little getaway before school starts. More pics to come.
|
|
|
Copyright © 2026 My Faith and Joy… and Boys! - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
|
Recent Comments