we drove up to my parents house as soon as I got off of work on Friday evening and then we all piled into the slightly uncomfortable rental car and hit the road for our 14-15 hour drive to Grams house, which Zack, who cannot sleep well in cars was DREADING! I was only dreading being on call all day Saturday. I had the worry that we would drive though a dead zone and I would miss a call or that it would be call after call after call with no breaks...you just never know how things will go. Thankfully, we didn't hit any dead zones....and while disruptive to life, it wasn't horrible since the majority of my call was spent sitting in the car.
After a brief stop at Cabela's, we made it to my Grandmother's house Saturday afternoon around 3pm. We got a chance to do a little catching up with her and then we ate an amazing meal that my Grandmother had prepared for us (I cannot believe that i didn't get a picture of it!). We stayed up talking for a while and then headed for bed anxious to get up to Blue Mountain Lake (BML) and the anticipation of seeing family new and old.
Sunday morning we attended my Grandmother's church. After church, we packed the car, piled in and ate a fast food lunch on our way up to BML. I was SUPER excited. I was really looking forward to seeing my aunt, uncle and cousins. I also couldn't wait to meet my cousin Naomi's sweet girls. I haven't seen them since the youngest was 3 months old....she's now 4. I also was looking forward to getting to know Julie, my cousin Jonathan's wife better. I met her briefly at their wedding.
I was filled with a nervous anticipation as we drove up to the house. It had been a couple years since we had seen everyone. Was it going to be awkward? What would Naomi's girls think of their silly country cousin from the South...any anticipation that I might have felt was completely gone when we opened the doors to hear Jenny say, "You're here! We've been waiting for you!" as she ran toward our car. My Uncle and cousin were sitting in a comfortable looking pair of Adirondack chairs talking and watchfully waiting by the driveway....and then the fun started. We took our stuff into the house and got settled amid a flutter of activity. There were people to hug, cutely decorated lodgings to see. Little girls dancing about! After all of the hellos had been said, we settled down for a delicious meal that my cousin Julie had prepared, baked ziti...let me just stop here to say Zack was in heaven on this trip due to all of the amazing food...
After dinner, the girls wanted to take us down to the lake. We went down to the lake and the girls played with sparklers while we all sat around talking and enjoying their excitement! The lake was beautiful in the fading light, and I was looking forward to seeing what the morning light would reveal.
When we got back to the house, I decided that it would be as good a time as any to give out the gifts that I had made for all of the girls. I have to admit that I was a little bit worried about whether or not they would like them. That fear was quickly replaced by pleasure when everyone opened their gifts and the little girls put theirs on and ran into the kitchen to grab mixing bowls and serving utensils. I put my apron on too (which I had brought for picture purposes) and we got a group picture. I am so glad that everyone seemed to like their aprons...hopefully it will serve as a reminder to them of a fun week spent with family.
Monday morning, we got up early and went on a hike with my parents and Aunt and Uncle. We hiked through a dense undergrowth of forest that was slightly damp due to rain the day before. There were trees that we had to climb over due to storms earlier in the year. We continued to climb and gain elevation. Mom was crossing a stream when her feet slipped on the wet rocks and she fell into the water. It was a little scary to watch, but she amazingly fell neatly between a couple of rocks. So, other than wet clothes and a nasty bruise on her arm, she managed to survive the experience relatively uninjured. As we started to break through the tree line, mom again had a mishap. Watching the trail rather than what was overhead, she straightened into a downward facing sharp tree branch. She hit this rather hard and cut her head...which was bleeding a little, but not too badly. We were thankful to reach the top of our hike as the view of the lakes below was beautiful...and I am apparently more out of shape than realized! :)
We sat atop the world for a few moments, enjoying the view and a little snack before turning again and heading back down the mountain. The trip down the mountain was much less eventful than the way up. we piled back into the car and headed back to my Aunt and Uncles house for lunch.
After lunch, we headed down to the beach to catch up with the rest of the family. We played around down at the beach for a while. Corn hole, frisbee, sand castles...
Later in the afternoon, Matt took us all out on the Pontoon boat. We road out to Rock Island. There is a steep rock face where you can jump into the cold deep lake. So, of course we had to experience the rush of jumping from the high rock face into the chilly depths below!
After a couple jumps, one was enough for me, we headed back into the shore to get ready for dinner. Julie thought it would be fun to have dinner down by the water. So, they brought all of the food for the evening down to the picnic area by the beach. They set out some finger foods, which were a big hit after a day of fun out in the sun. We had hamburgers and turkey burgers with a pasta salad and baked beans...mmmm another amazing meal! Julie was right it was fun to sit down by the lake and eat.
Just after dinner, the beach was a flutter of activity as the guys started to put out their arsenal of fireworks for the 4th of July firework display. The kids started out with some super long sparklers and then as it got darker, the amazing display of fireworks started. It ended up lasting about 1 hour and 20 minutes when all was said and done.
