Girl's Weekend and Crazy Crusin'

This weekend I went out to my aunts lake house to celebrate my Aunt Faith's 50th birthday. 

 The sisters and their daughters got together for a weekend of fun and relaxation.

  We had such a blast.  On Saturday we did a scavenger hunt and some letter-boxing.   I've only done geocaching before so it was fun to try this type of treasure hunting.  We were supposed to take a boat ride on Saturday in my aunt's pontoon boat.   My Aunt Carol and cousin, Sandy, went down and took the cover off the boat and cleared off all the spider webs and spiders so we could go.   Unfortunately when they went to start it they found out the battery was dead.  They put a charger on it in hopes that we could take the ride later in the day.    The boat didn't actually end up starting until the next morning.   It had rained and stormed the night before, so we took some towels down and headed out.   It was a beautiful morning and we snapped a few lovely photos on our way. 

 My three aunts and one cousin did not go on the ride, so only six of us were on the boat.   Thank God!   Because what happened next was crazy!!    As we were driving, we noticed a bunch of spiders on the front of the boat.  

Since we were moving, the front of the boat became windy and wet.   Those spiders decided they didn't want to be up there anymore.   They all started crawling IN for safety..... right into the seating area.  

We started freaking out.   Using our flip-flops to kill and smash them as they came, we were able to keep it under control for a little while.  Then it started getting worse and bigger spiders were coming out of everywhere.... the seats, the sides of the boat, the floor.   It quickly turned into a Nightmare Cruise!!!   It was funny and freaky all at the same time!!!!   Finally, we were all standing except my mom.   None of us wanted to sit down.   

Even when we passed the Lake Patrol, we inched down on the edge of the seats and table in the middle for the few minutes until we got passed him.   We decided to capture the craziness on video.  We were SO glad to be back to the dock!!!

Park day and then to the beach

Some friends that we haven't seen in a few months came into town.   My daughter and her friend picked up like they had just seen each other yesterday! (as did her mom and I :) )

Friends!

Silly Faces

Wanting to go to the creek

Friends and cousins

Then another friend had texted and invited us to the beach.   We went with my sister-in-law and her boys to meet up with them.   The kids started digging holes as deep as they could in the sand.

The little kids had a pretty good hole going

The bigger boys picked up the pace as they saw they were falling behind!

Fireworks

Our city fireworks were on the evening of July 3.   My sister-in-law and her 4 boys, as well as my parents went with our family.

^^ Old Glory with God's masterpiece of a sunset

^^ We got to witness the beauty of this rainbow.   The second picture almost looks fake it's so pretty.   I assure you it's real (courtesy of my husband)

 ^  Me and baby E, my nephew

 ^ Love those little pincher skills

 ^ My sister-in-law and I with two of our eight (collectively) boys.  

 ^ My lovely parents

^ Is that the moon?   -- I don't know, I don't live around here :)

Still working backwards through our summer.  More to come!

God bless!

Oats

Fourth of July - Part 2

Part 2 of Fourth of July pictures....

 There's always one...

 ^Downfall of homeschooling... you can still be doing Chemistry on the Fourth of July

^The Pastors playing Corn Hole

 ^ Overheard during this game, "that piece cannot go di-nag-nol"

^ My husband has been playing around with camera settings.

 ^  Another one of my husband's creations, playing with shutter speed.   As well as the one below.

Fourth of July - Part 1

We went to a friends house for a Fourth of July celebration this year.    We had a blast!  I took so many pics, I had to break them up into two posts.  

Will you tune my guitar?  Oh btw, the tuners broken :)

Pals

Grilling s'mores?

Chuck on garage duty to make sure Caleb doesn't escape

Grandmas are the best!

Somebody had to do it...

>> I added a bunch of family members to my email list after posting the Swim Team pics yesterday, so if you didn't get to see those, pop on the blog and check em out!

Peace out!
Oats