Weekend at the Lake

It was a long time coming and took a little rescheduling but we finally got together with friends after a 5 year hiatus! Back in the day, we started a little thing called the Redneck Reunion. There were about 10-12 couples and every year we would get together with friends from high school for a weekend, usually around Labor Day. Our friends from Monticello have a house with lots of land and plenty of room for lots of people and fun, it used to be all about who was bringing the beer, the games and the food. The last time we all got together a few of us were pregnant with our first little ones...now, 5 years later, we finally found time to get together again. 6 couples, 14 kids aged 6 and under...only 3 girls! We rented a condo in Hot Springs right on Lake Hamilton. Our friend Mandy's parents own one so we rented the one a few doors down. We all showed up on Friday afternoon and got out of town late Sunday. All of the kids had a blast! We had 2 boats to use plus the pool at the condo. If we weren't in the water then we were in front of the condo playing baseball or a number of other games involving balls of all sizes! The boys got to see kids they haven't seen in a while and even got to meet some new friends that they had never met before. It was a nice weekend of late nights and early mornings. Jackson and Gray both got to go tubing for the first time. Jackson loved it, I think he would have stayed on all day if we would have let him. Gray rode once with Chad but didn't want to go again after that. Harrison had his first boat ride also. It started off pretty rough, he did NOT want to be on the boat, but once we got going he calmed down and actually liked it. We had good food all weekend but I don't feel to guilty...the condo's were 2 story and the pool & boat dock were also down a steep flight of stairs so we were all feeling the burn by yesterday afternoon! Our last meal together we decided to take the boat down to a restaurant on the lake. As we were finishing up with our meals the storm clouds started rolling in and so did the rain! All the guys jumped in the boats and made it back to tie the boats up and get them covered up, just to turn around and jump in their vehicles to drive down to the restaurant and pick us all up! It was a long 45 minutes waiting for them to get back, us having to watch all the kids in the lobby of the restaurant. It was a good place to take all the kids though, we got to eat on the deck overlooking the lake. The boys had a ball standing at the rail looking over, there were TONS of turtles and fish coming up to check out what the kids were throwing over for them to eat! Even a few ducks showed up! It eventually stopped raining Sunday but by then it was time for us to head home. We dropped Harrison off at Gigi's house for his first extended stay without mommy and daddy. He made it thru last night just fine so we'll see how the rest of the week goes. I'm posting a few pics here but I'm still waiting on some from the water...my battery died soon after getting on the boat so I had to borrow a camera! Typical!

Jackson swimming in the pool
Harrison and Pax

Grayson & Harrison

Chris & Saylor; Josh pulling Jackson, Brooks & Jack on the air mattress; Chad, Gray and Silas stepping out in the back.