Lake Lanier--7.18.16, last day in Georgia

I think we were looking forward to Monday at the lake with Kelly and Steve more than anything! Steve's parents live on Lake Lanier, so Kelly wanted to make sure we spent some time out at their two-story dock while we were in town. Kelly and Steve swung by the condo to get Jake and Cooper about an hour before we planned to head out to help them set up. Then they called us when they were on their way with the boat to pick up the rest of us at the boat launch nearest our condo--about a thirty second drive.

The Beynon Party Boat :)

Watching the ducks while Uncle Steve filled the boat up with gas.

Sisters! Where the one decided to crash the other's 9th birthday-sleepover party to make her appearance in the world. Kelly still won't let me live that one down.

Our bathing suits even match!

Kelly was lamenting about not being tan. I put my baby beluga leg up next to hers to make her feel better. Everyone is tan next to me. Even the dearly departed.

And then we were off! It didn't take very long to get to the side of the lake where the dock was. 15-20 minutes, maybe? Hard to say because we were having too much fun riding in the boat--a new experience for many of my kids. I sat up front (and in the sun) the whole time. Even though I put sunscreen on after we got to the dock, I realized I had already burned! Some things never change. That happened to me a lot as a kid, too.

Me and Kelly reminiscing about all the different animals we had and when and where they came from.

JJ at the wheel with Uncle Steve.

Cooper trying to influence JJ's driving. (And Cooper's getting his permit in a year??)

Uncle Steve and Cooper crashing their pretend boats--JJ as calm as a cucumber :)

We had such a blast swimming in the lake, fishing, and jumping off the top of the dock (captured on video) about 10-12 feet above the water. Everyone in the Hough fam jumped, too, from JJ to Jared, except Calvin! Jake and Cooper even did tricks and stunts off the dock and sometimes used props, like a float and a ball they found :) We ate lunch, swam so more, hung out, enjoyed the sun and then we got caught in what had been predicted as a "chance of thunderstorms." But that's okay! We spent a good couple of hours on the lake and were so happy to have had that opportunity. 

When it appeared the storms weren't going to let up any time soon, Steve led me, Jared and the three little kids (soaking wet) up the path to his parents house where he used his mom's van (bless her) to drive us back to the condo while Jake and Cooper stayed to help Kelly break stuff down and haul it back inside. I have it on good authority that once the rain stopped, Jake and Cooper did some full-fledged diving off of the top of the dock. Impressive.

Since it was our last night with them, we invited Steve and Kelly to come back to our place after they changed clothes for a Kalua Pork dinner and some games. After we ate our fill, we introduced them to Tenzies and Telestrations. Aunt Kelly got her serious competitiveness on with Tenzies. I don't think she won a round, but she was really close!! ;) Cooper is tough to beat!

Then we played a few rounds of Telestrations. It was as hysterical as I imagined it would be. I don't remember laughing SO hard. The game is basically the Pictionary form of Telephone. Technically, the winner is the one whose final drawing or guess in their notebook is closest to the original secret word. However, we personally feel that the final guess that is the farthest removed from the original topic, is the real gem! This was one of our favorites. 

This is Jake's notebook. He got the term "over the counter." So he wrote it down and flipped the page for the next person to put that term into picture form.

This was Karcyn's drawing of "over the counter." Then she flipped the page and passed it to Kelly.

Kelly flipped back to look at Karcyn's picture above and decided that Karycn drew the "Olympic Bunny Vault." :)

Then it was Calvin's turn to draw the term. Here is his version of the "Olympic Bunny (pole) vault." So cute!

Steve's interpretation however, was that of an upside-down Eeyore! 

So Cooper did the only logical thing and drew an upside-down Eeyore.

However, I took Cooper's drawing to mean that Eeyore was dead. (Such a dark game!!! :)

So we went from "Over the Counter" to "Dead Eeyore"! Hahahaha!

We were rolling on the floor, tears coming from our eyes. Part of the problem is Kelly's laugh. It's so dang contagious. You can't help but laugh when she laughs. It took a while for us to calm down :)

Sometime during the evening, Calvin thought it would be a good idea to chuck his empty Coke can into the neighboring field behind the condo. Uh, no. So Jared escorted him outside and they drove along the road behind our condo to try and find the owner of the field who could let Calvin in to retrieve his "wandering" trash. Brother.

Before we said goodbye, Kelly and Calvin (our May Firsters--both born on May 1) had a moment talking together in the gazebo.

Oh, how we didn't want to say goodbye. We had an incredible week and I loved seeing my sister and brother-in-law again. The ultimate gift, of course, was having my kids connect with their aunt and uncle who will no longer be nebulous to them, and so they can maintain a more concrete relationship with them moving forward. Kelly sacrificed a lot during a crazy time at work to spend time with us and we're so grateful. We hope it isn't another 15 years before we see them again. Maybe just a couple. Hopefully, Kelly and Steve will have recovered from our visit by then! :)

On Tuesday, July 19th, we were "up" and on the road very early--around 5am. We were driving home in one day. Even though we would gain an hour, we wanted to head out as soon as we thought we could.

The Atlanta skyline early in the morning. Traffic is great at 5am!

We took the southern route home through Baton Rouge, Louisiana and up through Houston. We'd never driven this way before. It was really different to be that close to the water and swamp land. Hard to believe and kind of not, that this was all underwater with the floods just a few months later.

We got caught in some thunderstorms.

And there were some pretty wicked winds...which were successful in blowing this trailer over. 

We made it back to College Station safe and sound a little after 7pm. It was about a 15 hour day of driving. Just on the edge of insanity, but the kids did great!