7 Quick Takes {The Lake Adventures}

1. The Marina at Strom Thurmond Lake

I love sail boats! Never been on one that I can remember, but they look cool.

2. My boys SUPER excited to be boating!
 

 

3. A few attempts to fish for the first time and one who HATED the life jacket 

4. Lake swimming and sitting in a beer bucket filled with lake water is awesome!
 

 5. Learned that going under bridges in a boat is WAY cooler than going over them in a car.

6. Andrew LOVES Canada Geese, just like his mama and grandma!

7. Best moment of the boating adventure: SUNSET! It was a wonderful day!! ;)

Labor Day Festivities {Recap}

The Week of Labor Day Weekend

With 3 kids you learn that you MUST pack throughout the week. Why wait til the last minute? You will forget something anyway. Always happens. This time I forgot Austin's blanket. But, at least I remembered the kids - both real and stuffed (aka Tusker the Elephant, Roary the Lion, and Baby Fox)

Yep, that is my kitchen table covered in the stuff needed for this family when we travel. This does NOT include the parent suitcase, the baby's tote, the highchair (there were a LOT of people at Sarah's house this weekend...plus it breaks down pretty easy), the pack-n-play, AND two bikes with helmets.

I know. I KNOW!

Good thing we have the awesome minivan...

Thursday Morning (the day we leave for Georgia)

We headed out to the zoo. Because I'm insane like that. BUT! I have good reasons - the house was mostly clean, the kids were wild and asking every 5 minutes when it was time to go, and I didn't want these packed items messed with anymore!

Ready to head out to the zoo!

Bird is the word...

Lunch at the library before dropping off books that were due / picking up our books for school

Thursday Afternoon (pack 'em up and let's roll)

I love having an engineer in the house. He can solve any "Rubik's Cube" - especially the minivan version!

Yes, everything packed - the bikes are in the right seat's spot (we took out that seat)

Working on the last of the baby afghans for this month

Thursday - We have arrived!

Happy to be at Nana's with the train tracks!

Just happy to be out of the car. Not a fan of being strapped down when he has places to go and things to get into...

Love this picture! We have a funny story to go with this one. Kate, my sister-in-law (!!!), and I were looking through a book from Mark (Jason's dad) called Practical Problem Solver. We were answering the questions to "Are you in love?" You had to be there. We had fun with it!

 Friday - the LAKE!! (see this post for more pics of our adventure)

These guys had an absolute blast and are already asking when we get to go again! So much fun!!

Mark and Sarah rented a party boat for Friday afternoon/evening. It was AWESOME. Great fun was definitely had on this gorgeous lake! The boys went fishing for the first time ever...loved it! They even swan in the lake. They thought that was pretty cool until another boat came by and made waves. They would run up the ladder, wait for the waves to calm a bit, then get back in the water. So funny!

I mean, see? GORGEOUS!! Also this was my favorite part of the boating adventure! ;)

Saturday (Catan Extravaganza...after golf, of course)

I would just like to document here that I WON a game of Catan...and NOT JUST a game of Catan. A game of Catan with "the ones who cannot be beat" - ahem...all the men! However, I'm still not entirely sure how I did that. I tried to do the same thing and that blew up. So, hmmm. Maybe it is a game of luck. At least for me.

Sunday 

Trying out another Catholic church while in Augusta. We think this is the winner! Beautiful Mass, beautiful music, and they have a Nursery AND a Sunday School program that even visitors can attend. Wonderful priest - LOVED, LOVED the homily!! Definitely will visit St. Mary's on the Hill again!

No Sunday is complete without football. Check out that arm!

The sweetest picture that I'm so happy I was able to get! This is Ma, the boys' great-grandmother, and she is reading the rest of the Magic Tree House book that we brought along. Love it!

Monday - We head home!

Austin decide to wake up at the crack BEFORE dawn and scream bloody murder...So, he and I headed out on a walk on the peaceful path. But it only looks peaceful since he was angry the whole time. Stinker. It's all good. I brought my phone along and play some music for us. He wasn't happy, but quit the constant yelling at me. He was fine the rest of the day. So, I have no idea what that was about....

On our way home, we hit a few scattered showers. Check out that beam of sunshine.

Finally home! But everyone was wired...so Jason turned everyone into an obstacle course for Austin. He called it his version of Mount Midoriyama (Can you tell we are American Ninja Warrior fans??)

This was such a fun trip! We were so glad to see everyone! Hope y'all had a great Labor Day weekend, too!

Weekly Rewind: August 5-10

Well, I can finally say (after hitting the "publish" button...) that I am caught up on posting pictures! Whew! I take too many pictures... Nah, I don't think so!

{MONDAY}

Chilling in the pool in the shade 

 

  Awesome little Frisbee throwers! Can I just say how excited I am!!!??? I can't wait to take them to play disc golf!! I wish it said my name, Shaun's, and the others whole helped in the making of this, but here is the course we designed! So cool, huh? Eh, at least I have all the paperwork from it still ;)

 Ok, you have to look very closely to see...but Andrew is chasing this dragonfly that keeps coming to our yard. He's pretty big, too! It is just to the right of his head. 

{TUESDAY}

 

Spelling their names with Super Why! Alpha-Bits Cereal at breakfast!

{WEDNESDAY}

 

Zoo Day!!

 Letting Mommy rest make a menu plan/grocery list while watching "The Cat in the Hat"

Making a puzzle while I make dinner

{THURSDAY}

 Putting together Jason's lunch one morning. I put a surprise message in his lunchbox! Gotta love it!

 Look where I found the smaller one during nap time - love him!

 Another cute moment captured while making dinner

{FRIDAY}

 UGH! Laundry day... At least I have some super cute helper boys who think that making a laundry train is the best thing ever. :) 

 2 boys, a bug, and a dump truck. Sweet. 

 Of course the outside play didn't last long...rain! But, we did see a great surprise out the window afterwards! Love rainbows!

 They were pretty impressed, too!

 Once the rainbow faded away, they had to get back to their puzzle making. This puzzle (similar) is so LONG!

{SATURDAY}

Jason's company picnic was Saturday. It was a lot of fun! The boys thought that the boat was the coolest thing there (except the great food!). Thanks, again, Mr. Ken, for letting the boys hang out in your boat and giving them a ride! They LOVED it!!!

 Checking out the boat

 So pretty! 

 Headed out for a little ride (and, yes...they had their puddle jumpers on at this point)

 I enjoyed the bits of sunshine on the dock as they headed out. 

What a great week!! Hope y'all had a good one, too!