July 4th on Jackson Lake

It's good to be home... but I kind of wish we weren't. I really, really enjoyed our long weekend away at Jackson lake. We left after supper time on Thursday and joined Josh's parents at the lake that night.

Bennett was excited to be in a new environment and ran around like a wild man until about 11:00pm. When I put him to bed, that was it. Not a peep. Which is huge for him, being in a strange place.

The next morning we got up and enjoyed the nice breakfast Steve made for us. Bennett liked looking out at the lake from the deck.


But why look at it from there when you could have a much better view? We didn't waste any time getting on the boat. Are these not the two coolest dudes ever?

Bennett helped Pop drive the boat, and loved sitting with Gigi and touching his hand to the water coming up from underneath.

We decided to go in and put on our swimsuit so we could really test the water.

Although he didn't cling to me like that time we went to the pool (which may have only been because his float was in the way), he didn't much care for being in the lake.

So... how about another boat ride? Yeah, that's what he likes. He was so laid back on that boat. He almost fell asleep a couple times!

We got to watch Daddy knee board,

and after that we saved a family from their sinking canoe. Josh had fallen off the knee board and we were getting him back in the boat when I looked over and saw this man jump out of the canoe he had been in with his wife and son. When the canoe rocked one time I saw the sun bounce off the water ... in the canoe. I turned to the rest of our crew and said, "Uh... those people are sinking." Sure enough, into the water the canoe went. The woman and little boy sat there, slowly going down with it, while all of their belongings began to float out into the lake. We headed their way and grabbed up their stuff, let them in the boat, and towed the canoe back to their house (which happened to be just across the inlet- they almost made it home). So, we did our good deed for the day.

When we got back to our dock, Steve jumped in the water and was teasing Bennett. Bennett about climbed out of that boat on his own to get to his Pop. I handed him over the edge of the boat to Steve,

and in the lake he was. Surprisingly, he was quite happy to be there! He didn't fuss a bit; that's exactly where he wanted to be.

Josh got in, and Bennett suddenly turned into an excited little water bug! He loved swimming back and forth between the two of them. He would get to one of them and immediately turn around to go back the other way. His little arms stayed stretched out like that for 15 minutes, at least.

After all of that fun, we came back in and he took a nice, long nap. When he woke up, he was greeted by Uncle Greg and his crew! How fun!

That night we ate barbeque from a place called Blind Pig's. Thankfully they were open, because the night before we had driven by and they were "shut." We thought that was pretty funny.

Anyway, the barbeque was good. After supper we played some cards and some Boggle, and then we all settled in for the night. Or so we thought. Long story short, we woke Bennett up when we came to bed. I got him up and took him out into the living room to try and quiet him back down.

Let me step aside for a minute and explain the layout of this cabin. It is a cabin. It's not a lake house. It is quite rustic and not meant to be some grand, luxurious getaway. It's where you eat, use the bathroom, play cards when you need a break from the water, and sleep. There are 4 rooms. On one side of the cabin is one large room (relatively speaking) which is the kitchen and the living room. On the other side is the bathroom, the master (can you call it that?) bedroom that has a queen sized bed, and the other bedroom. Let's call it the communal bedroom, because it has two double (queen?) beds and two bunk beds. This room is maybe 11 ft. x 16 ft. Maybe. And it sleeps 8. Lynn and Steve slept in the master bedroom, and the rest of us (me, Josh, Bennett, Greg, Cici, Malia, and Elizabeth) slept in this communal bedroom. And if you haven't already guessed, the fact that Bennett and Elizabeth were in there meant that there were also two pack 'n plays set up in there for them to sleep in. Oh yeah, it was a rather tight squeeze. But from what I hear, that was nothing. There used to be three or four different families there when Josh and Lauren were growing up, and everybody crammed in there and got comfy (maybe cozy is a better word than comfy). Anyway, let me continue:

I took Bennett out into the living room to try to get him to go back to sleep, but that wasn't happening. We tried everything. Lynn and Steve tried to get him to lay down with them. No. We tried moving his pack 'n' play in their room so he wouldn't disturb Elizabeth. No. He woke her up. Cici had to get her and calm her down and also calm Malia down because she was having a hard time getting to sleep (obviously). I held Bennett and rocked him, trying to get him to fall asleep on me on the couch. No. Lynn held him and sang to him. No. We took him down to the boat to "ride" so that maybe it would calm him enough to put him to sleep. No. We put him in the car and drove around for 15 minutes. No.

Finally, I looked at Lynn and said, "This isn't working. I don't know what to do." She said, "Let's go to Mom's." Her mother has a house that is only about 20 minutes from the lake. She lives in an assisted living place, so no one was at the house. We went back to the cabin, packed up the pack 'n' play, got the keys to Nana's, and at 12:45 am, off we go.

Finally, at 1:15am or so, we're all asleep. Ahhh...

We didn't waste any time getting back to the cabin the next morning, which was the 4th. We didn't want any fun to happen without us! When we got back, the boat was already out and rockin' (pun intended). We fixed some sweet rolls and fruit for breakfast, and got outside.

Around lunch time, my parents (Grandmama and Poppa) got there. We grilled out hot dogs and hamburgers and had lots of good side dishes and dips to go with them.

Bennett loves to sit on Poppa's stomach and bounce up and down. This is his new game - with Daddy, Pop, Poppa, whoever will let him (which is usually the men.)

After lunch, back into the water to swim some more.

Malia and I went tubing together, which was really fun. I was a bit nervous at first, because it's a single person tube, so she was sitting in my lap. I was afraid we would go flying off and crack heads. Even if she accidentally let go of her handles and fell back against me, we'd crack heads. But, we did fine, and of course we repeated several times.

Between the tubing, knee boarding, riding on the boat, and swimming in the lake, we were about pooped. We went inside to rest, snack, play cards, whatever you chose.

Bennett spent his time running around chasing his cousin Libby Lu, trying to get a kiss from her. All she did was shake her head back and forth "no" and run away. He finally got one in there.

Grandmama and Poppa left after supper, but they had to get one more squeeze from their grandbabies before they headed out.

Greg, Cici and the girls left that night too, but they stayed long enough for Josh to take us on a boat ride at dusk, and to watch the fireworks from the dock. It was nice.

The boat ride was quite enjoyable. The water was beautiful with the sunset reflecting off it. Bennett was, again, very calm and just relaxed the whole time, Elizabeth held her mouth wide open with excitement pretty much the whole time, and of course Malia had a ball sitting in the front, having Josh bounce us all around on the waves.

Josh and I decided to stay another night with Pop and Gigi. This morning we went for one last boat ride, had another nice breakfast, and then came home.

We all had such a good time; especially Bennett. I can't tell you how glad I am that he enjoyed the boat and the water. That gives me high hopes for the beach later this summer! :)

Hope everyone had a great, safe holiday weekend!