This past weekend we headed to Lake Carlyle in southern Illinois for a long lake weekend with my family. We found this place because it was the most central for everyone to meet. We headed out early Friday morning, and we got there around lunch time. After eating lunch, the first thing the kids wanted to do was to head to the pool. They all loaded up in the car with Gramma and Uncle Andy!
Norah was soaking up all the extra attention, especially from Papa (she learned to say Gramma and Papa on this trip!)
Aaron, Andy and Joe. We had a lot of fun hanging out outside the "cabins" (we call them cabins, but they were actually two mobile homes. But they had air conditioning, so none of us were complaining!) Anyway, like I was saying, we had a lot of fun hanging out in the back, but between the picnic tables and the uncomfortable chairs, I'm pretty sure most of us came home with sore hineys! :)
Smores are always a hit when there's a campfire.
There were quite a few games of baseball. Kylah needed a bit of help to hit the ball...Uncle Aaron came to save the day!
We headed to the lake for the next two days. The beach was actually pretty nice, and the kids had a blast swimming together.
Norah and Luca had a great time together this weekend. They are like two peas in a pod. They have similar personalities, and they really played great together all weekend. They enjoyed the beach for a little bit, but since it was over 100 degrees outside, they got hot pretty fast. Gramma saved the day and took the little two back to the cabins to play and to take naps. That left us with only the big kids, and we had a great time! Thanks Gramma!
My dad brought his boat, so after a little bit of time spent in starting the boat (it got a bit flooded, but those are the things that make vacations memorable!) the kids headed out to go tubing. Joey had a blast. Kylah went too, but we didn't get any pictures of her (daddy had the camera....) :)
After a full day on the lake and in the sun, we were all quite exhausted. The kids all enjoyed popsicles in the cool cabin.
Papa had a lot of helpers to start the campfire!
My parents celebrated their 35th anniversary on June 11th, so we celebrated a little late since we were all together.
We had this cute plaque made for their house.
These two took quite a few baths together. And they did a lot of this splashing!
Joey seemed so old on this trip. I don't know why, but he just seems so old all of a sudden. We let him play with the fire one night (obviously we were just a few feet away from him). I think he felt so old that we were letting him do this. He spent a good 45 minutes throwing things into the fire.
He kept wanting me to try to get pictures of him throwing things. :)
Tan and tired.
Me, Gina and Esther.
I had a great time with these girls!
A little bit of "fishing" for the little ones the next morning. The older kids tried to go fishing a few times, but between the heat and the wasps, they didn't last long.
Papa brought out the watermelon as an appetizer. Only on vacation! :) These kids thought they were in heaven...they got to eat lots of snacks and candy, and had a lot of grape and orange pop. What fun memories!
Norah enjoyed her watermelon too!
Gramma and her two little buddies. They both love their pacifiers and their blankets!
Uncle Aaron goes fishing for Norah.
These three played so well together all weekend.
I love Michael's laugh here. :)
Joey figured out that Gramma is actually ticklish when he tried to tickle her with his glow stick. :)
We had such a fun weekend with my family. We can't wait to do it again next summer!
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We got home around 4:00 on Monday. We decided to ask Connor and Audrey to spend the night since they are starting school next week.
They enjoyed ice cream and cartoons together. I love how Norah wants to do everything the big kids are doing.
The highlight of the night was that Joey lost his first tooth! He has had a few loose teeth for a while now, and last night he kept wiggling his front tooth, and it popped out. He was so excited! The tooth fairy brought him a dollar under his pillow! (Not $5-$10 like he said some of his friends have gotten...are you kidding me?!) He was pretty excited to find his dollar this morning. Now the question is what I do with the tooth. We put it on top of the fridge for now. I feel bad throwing it away, but I also don't necessarily want to keep all of his teeth in a jar for him....hmmm...any advice? :)
Love the toothless grins of these boys! Joey and Connor came up with quite a plan this morning for what they will do next time Joey loses a tooth. Connor said he would come over to spend the night that night, and just pretend to be asleep. When the tooth fairy comes Connor would wake up Joey, and they would grab her by her feet, turn her upside down and take $50 from her. Sounds like a good plan to me! :)
My kids were pretty tired tonight. They got to watch a cartoon and eat their oranges. Norah crawled up on the cough between them and of course wanted to eat her oranges just like them. So cute!
