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Friday afternoon at the lake gave me the opportunity to have some water sport fun. The kids sacrificed a few minutes of tubing so I could ski. First, though, we had to make preparations. It’s important to put weight in the front of the boat when it’s pulling someone, especially an adult man on a single slalom ski.

I wasn’t sure how I’d do, but I managed to get up on 1 ski easily, and felt right at home.

Then it was back to the tube. Molly picked up right where she left off.

And she caught some air.

Most people might close their mouth when the spray is hitting them in the face, but not Molly. She can’t stop smiling.

I joined Leah on the tube again.

Emmie was warming to the idea of tubing, especially since she got to go with her dad.

And she even smiled.

Uncle J taught JJ some tubing moves.

After tubing, we got some visitors. Great Uncle Ted and Great Aunt Jeannie joined us for a bit.

And after dinner it was time for some sweet treats. Uncle J made a fire so we could make s’mores.

They were shockingly good.

Emmie preferred the technique where you light your marshmallow on fire, then blow it out after the outside is nicely blackened.

I like this picture of Molly, Uncle J, and the fire. So serene.

JJ liked the picture too, and decided to insert himself into it.

While at the lake, some people (e.g. Grampa and Uncle J) would get up early to go fishing. Jen and I are not those people. Friday morning, the kids woke up and wanted to join in the fishing. Unfortunately the girls clothes were in our room. So, instead of waking us, they just went fishing in their night gowns.

Once everyone was up and dressed, we made sure to get a family picture of all of us, complete with Lay Lake in the background.

And here’s the four of us.

Grandparents and their grandkids.

After taking a nice picture, can you believe they did this.

Then Jen and I took an intimate picture of the two of us. And Jeremy.

Our first morning at the lake house, we woke up ready for some water sport fun. The girls were excited to try out tubing for the first time, but they had a little time to kill while we got everything together to head out on the ski boat. So, they borrowed Emmie and JJ’s fishing rods to try it for a couple of minutes.

Soon afterward, we headed out in the boat for some tubing. Since our girls had never seen tubing before, JJ and Aunt ‘Chelle showed them how it’s done.

After watching JJ, Molly was ready to go. She elected to go with Aunt ‘Chelle as well to learn from her tubing experience.

I went with Leah for her first time tubing. She loved it. She kept telling Uncle J to go faster. I eventually had to tell her the boat wasn’t going to go any faster.

Emmie has tubed before, but is still trepidatious about it. She went anyway, and stayed on longer than she normally does. She said she was just doing it for her cousins :)

Molly loved tubing, and was excited to get a second turn by herself once Emmie was done. She smiled the whole way.

Grampa even got on the tube. Leah showed him how to do it.

Leah and Grampa had to hold on tight.

Tubing is fun!

We had 10 days at home, before heading to another lake - this time with Jen’s family. We flew to Alabama to see everyone and the family’s newly remodeled lake house (which we had not been to since 2007).

Our adventure started early with a 7:40am flight to Birmingham. Grams was kind enough to pick us up at 5:30am to bring us to the airport. With the time change, we landed before 9:00am in Alabama, giving us a full day there.

We first went to Aunt ‘Chelle’s house to hang out and play for a bit, as well as eat some lunch. Then we headed to visit Grandma Dot.

Despite living several states away, our girls and their cousins did the same VBS, so they learned the same songs and dance moves. They put on a performance for Grandma Dot.

After visiting Grandma Dot, we stopped by G’Mom’s cousin Ann’s house to check out her doll room. Ann has been very kind to our girls over the years, giving Molly her beloved American Girl Molly doll and lots of great doll stuff for both girls. Here, we got to see where she worked.

Then we headed to the lake house. After getting there and checking the place out, it didn’t take long before we were on the water. We took out the party boat (a pontoon boat) for a nice ride around the lake.

All the kids got a turn helping Grampa drive the boat.

And what’s a boat ride without snacks?

After dinner, we were very happy to get to bed. It was a very long day.

There are a few things I didn’t mention yet about our trip.

First, what’s a vacation without a puzzle? I bought this 3D puzzle of a space shuttle to bring to the beach 2 years ago, but forgot it. Then I forgot I had it. But I found it again before this trip, so it finally got to be built. I expected us to work on it over the week, but the girls wanted to knock it out the first day. Here are the girls with our finished product. They decided to name it Discovery, just like the shuttle we saw a couple years ago.

We also celebrated Grams and Aunt Caroline’s birthdays while there. Thanks to Aunt EA and Uncle Scott for picking up the Tres Leches cake.

We also ate really well on this trip. This included meals prepared by each family unit, as well as taking advantage of the great options in Deep Creek. The best of those had to be Mountain State Brewing Co, which had some fantastic flatbread pizzas. These included some really strange but delicious offerings, including the Cheeseburger in Paradise (hamburger, cheese, pickles, fry sauce), the Pesto & Prosciutto, the Beetza (arugula, beets, Chèvre), and the delicious dessert S’Mores pizza.

Oh, and of course there were treats. We got ice cream from Lakeside Creamery twice - once at their main store, once at the truck they had at Swallow Falls State Park. We also got fudge next door. Oh, and Jen also made a couple batches of homemade ice cream (roasted strawberry as well as chocolate hazelnut gelato).

This was the most time we’d ever spent with Charlie. This led to lots of fun (and lots of pictures). There may have been some downsides (oh, you mean babies sometimes wake up in the middle of the night?), but we were happy to spend so much time with him. Here’s a few bits of the fun.

First of all, Charlie is now starting to eat solid food. We got to observe as Charlie had plums for the first time. It was hilarious. Here he is asking Aunt Jen to save him from this fate.

Then, Charlie got angry about having to eat these plums.

OK, maybe the plums are alright after all.

Charlie’s favorite activity seems to be walking around. He needs a little help, and the girls were glad to help with that.

Hi Charlie! And yes, that’s Leah trying to give him bunny ears.

Charlie was even happy after getting up from his nap earlier than he was supposed to.

Babies are fun.

My favorite outing of our stay in Deep Creek was to Swallow Falls State Park. We went for a hike there and got to experience some great natural beauty and fun. First stop - Muddy Creek Falls.

We then hiked along the river, stopping to climb around on the rocks occasionally.

Here are the four of us at Lower Swallow Falls. The others had just headed back to the cars to get Charlie home for a nap.

The last stop on our hike was also the best in my opinion. Tolliver Falls has this serene pool of water at the bottom of the small falls. And the best part was it was mostly empty of other people. We stayed and played here for a long time.

The 3 of us stood at the top of Tolliver Falls as water rushed over our feet.

The girls spent much of the time there excitedly playing with mud.

Molly found a good place to sit.

If you are in the area and like the outdoors, I highly recommend Swallow Falls. It’s beautiful, and a lot of fun.

While rain kept us indoors on a few days, we had several days of good weather to take advantage of. Our top priority was to ride the Mountain Coaster. Molly’s ready to go.

And here are Jen and Leah at the end of the Mountain Coaster. Lots of fun, and very different to ride a roller coaster where you are in charge of how fast/slow you go (using the control handles).

There were also some classic vacation activities. This, of course, included mini golf.

During the rainy days, someone had randomly turned on the Game Show Network to watch Deal or No Deal. The girls were fascinated with the game. They were even more excited when we discovered that the arcade attached to the mini golf had a Deal or No Deal game. They had to play.

Molly took a wise deal with 2 cases left to win 50 tickets. Leah went all the way to the end, opened her case, and got 40 tickets. I was surprised they were both such big winners. So much fun to get a pile of tickets at the arcade.

Since some of the family couldn’t make it to our first mini golf outing due to nap schedule, we tried out another mini golf course a couple days later when they could.

This course featured a bear you had to hit past. Be careful not to wake it, Leah.

There was one more gaming activity, but I didn’t get pictures of it. This included a trip to Fun Unlimited - a house filled with arcade video games.

The girls had lots of fun with aunts and uncles in Deep Creek. Aunt Caroline and Uncle Charles could only stay for a couple days, but you already saw some hot tub fun with them. Aunt EA and Uncle Scott provided fun all week long.

After the rain on the fourth, the girls wanted to get into the lake when it was clear on the fifth. However, the lake water was freezing cold. Molly opted not to get in except for splashing around in the shallows, but Leah wasn’t scared to jump in.

While Leah could have swam to shore, she convinced Uncle Scott to give her a ride instead.

After the cold of the lake, it was time to warm up in the hot tub. Despite avoiding the cold of the lake, I joined in the fun of the hot tub.

Uncle Scott brought awesome water ballons that fill and tie 35 at a time, so it was time for a water balloon fight.

After a bit, a new participant joined the fray. The others were waiting to pounce.

Their target was Aunt EA, though she managed to catch this incoming balloon before it hit her in the head.

The next day, there was even more water fun. Uncle Scott and Aunt EA wanted to rent some jet skis and offered for the girls to ride along. The girls were very excited to try it. Molly rode with Uncle Scott.

And Leah rode with Aunt EA.

A few minutes later, they stopped by the lakehouse to say hello before continuing on their hour-long ride.

After they got back, the girls wanted to play in the lake, but it was still freezing cold. They didn’t make it in too far.

Our little girls really loved playing with their aunts and uncles. Thanks!

We were in Deep Creek for the Fourth of July - always a fun holiday. Sadly, it wasn’t quite as fun as we had hoped due to the weather. It rained, and rained. It was nice to chill in the house, but it would have been even nicer to get outside.

A few of us did get outside. The girls were very excited about the hot tub at the lake house. The rain may have kept them out of the lake, but it didn’t keep them out of the hot tub. Thanks to Aunt Caroline and Uncle Charles for joining them so Jen and I could stay out of the rain.

When not in the hot tub, the girls were very festive on July 4th, wearing their new dresses made by Jen.

The fireworks did not go off on July 4th due to rain, so they postponed to the 5th. We could see them from the lake house, though they were somewhat far away (sorry, no pics of far away fireworks). I got the girls red, white, and blue glow wands at the dollar store, which Leah is showing off as she watches the fireworks.

These fireworks are amazing!