Family Camping 2014

Last week our little family headed to the lake for the whole week!  It was a perfect blend of fun and relaxation, including daily naps and lots of time in the water.

Both of our water babies!

Several evenings, after dinner, we headed out to our favorite "fishing hole" (a new term Gracie likes to use) to have some fun!   This is the first year since Gracie was born that we've really gotten to fish. And boy, does it feel good!  I was never a fishergirl, until I met Ryan.  When it was just the two of us, we used to love going out in his aluminum fishing boat every, single night.  We had the best time together!  He's taught me how to tie my own hook, put on my own plastic worm, cast, fish without getting my line stuck, and even take the fish off the hook.  Now, of all those things, I only regularly use the worm, casting, and amazing fishing skills.  I still rely on him to take my fish off the hook.  Too squirmy for me!  Not Gracie though, she's gotten pretty good at touching the fish, but when they wiggle, she wiggles, too!

On the way to our fishing hole!

She's such a happy lake rat! 

On our camping trip, Gracie discovered funny faces.  This was her first attempt at making a silly face and asking me to take her picture.  Pretty silly!

Funny face #1

Camping dog, Tysie!

Relaxing in Daddy's lounge chair, playing on my cell phone.
The life.  

We're kind of addicted to flying kites when we're down at Pomme de Terre.  It's always so windy, even on hot summer days, so we don't struggle to get the kites up and flying.

Daddy and his little buddy!

I love watching her run with her kite!

Gracie loves to fish, just like her Momma and Daddy.  We spent some time fishing from the shore with real worms (which, I definitely don't touch) so Gracie could catch a few.  She had pretty good luck, catching what she called the "King, Queen, Prince, and Princess Blue Gill".  The "King" was bigger than Daddy's hand... pretty big for a Blue Gill.

Ready to catch something!

Casting!

A little help setting the hook!

First catch... and she reeled it in herself... sort of!
Watch the video below...

She's not afraid to touch the worm...
Daddy's girl!

The Queen!

One of our favorite things about the lake is all the friends we've made over the years.  Ryan has known several of our lake friends since he was 5 years old, but many other friends are people we've met together.  We met our good friends Ray and Diana (along with their son and his family) 2 years ago.  We were so excited when Mr. Ray and Miss Diana arrived for the second half of our week.  Another acquaintance we've made is Grandma Spike and Grandpa Lannon, and their dog, Baby.  Grandma Spike stopped us one night to give Gracie a glow-in-the-dark headband and a finger light.  And boy did Grandma Spike make Gracie's night!  She was so, so excited about her headband!

Notice the finger light on her toe...
Daddy started calling her "Lazer Toe"
Sounds like a superhero, right?!

Uncle Chad bought Tysie a light for her collar, so here are our light up kids!
You can barely see Tysie's light, right next to Gracie's left hand.  

We're always on the lookout for memorable things to do when we get family time, so Ryan bought these floating lanterns (just like Rapunzel's!) for us to release in the dark.  They were so much fun!  We even released a few from the boat, on the water, while our friends Brad, Chantay, Averi, and Carter were down!  So cool!

Watching it float up, up, and away!
We always had the kids make a wish as we released the lantern.  

Earlier this summer we initiated one of our favorite lake traditions, "Park in the Dark".  It's pretty self-explanatory, but the reason we started it centers around the fact that the park has absolutely no shade. So going to the park during the day is almost impossible.  Even if you could handle the blistering sun overhead, all the equipment is too hot to enjoy.  So now, we go after the sun goes down, and we simply have the best time!

By the way, you'll notice she's wearing her light up headband again.  Grandma Spike told us that you can store them in the freezer to get another night out of them.  She was right!  The headband kept in the freezer for 2 nights before we pulled it out for Park in the Dark.

Riding horsey!
Last year he was puppy, but Gracie finally figured out he is a horse!

Funny face #2

Camping girl, with her lantern!

Daddy getting in on the funny face pictures!

I didn't want to be left out!

Funny face #3
She got a few new ideas from Daddy and Momma's silly faces.

Merry-go-round!

Slide!

Climbing!

Climbing up the slide!

(no one else is there, so why not?!)

Happy Daddy!

Happy doggy!

Climbing the slide together!

I also took a turn, but there wasn't a photographer on duty!

Smart doggy, keeping her paws off the rocks.

Climbing the slide by herself... this is seriously harder than it looks!

Swinging by the arms!

As you can probably tell, we just love, love, love our time at the lake.  We feel so grateful to be able to get away whenever we get the chance.  It's nice to unplug and play together all day long!  Gracie kept saying "Go home day is never fun" while we were packing to come home.  We mentioned her comment to our camping friends Chris, Lauren, Dash, and Maylin as they were all packed and heading home.  Lauren replied, "Truer words were never spoken."  Well said.  We all feel sad to leave the lake and get back to the daily grind.  Poor Daddy always has to go back to work.  And poor Gracie always misses her Daddy like crazy after having been with him, day and night, for a whole week.  We have such a great time together!