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Saturday was our last full day to enjoy the water, so we made sure to take advantage. But first, some dry fun - Bingo!

And then we were back on the tube. JJ showed that he didn’t need to use his hands.

After riding with JJ, Uncle J got to ride on the tube with Leah as well.

Leah caught some air.

In the span of 3 days, Emmie went from fear to fun on the tube. Two days before this I never would have thought she’d have such a grin. And yes, Uncle J got to ride for a third time in a row, ensuring maximum tiredness.

Then it was Molly’s turn to get sprayed in the face with water.

No hands!

Not sure if she’s sticking her tongue out at me or tasting the lake water (yuck).

The kids started practicing rolling off the side at the end of their ride. Here goes Molly.

G’Mom even got on the tube. She had a great time.

It wasn’t all grins; sometimes things got serious.

We then had our second great uncle/aunt visit. Great Uncle Rick and Great Aunt Roxanne dropped in to hang out.

Saturday afternoon when we went to get in the ski boat, the kids noticed a snake in the fishing boat. None of us were sure if it was dangerous or what to do about it. Uncle J went and got his hunting rifle (not sure what he was going to do with it). Then our neighbor walked over and picked it up. He said it wasn’t poisonous, and he clearly knew how to handle snakes properly. The kids even all petted it once he had it. It’s good to have someone around who knows about snakes.

Saturday afternoon we took the boat out to some swimming destinations. Here are the four of us having fun in the water. We also checked out the rope swing, though it was too high for any of our kids at this point.

We also went to swim at the rock. There’s a very high (maybe 30 feet) ledge, and a somewhat lower (10-12 feet) ledge. We figured we’d just watch, but then Emmie surprised us all and started climbing up. Molly quickly followed behind. After seeing another adult climb up to assist a kid who got scared, Uncle J and I figured we’d be climbing up soon. But we were wrong. They jumped on their own and loved it. Then they climbed up to do it again, this time joined by Leah. All 3 girls jumped a bunch of times.

We all slept well that night.

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.

This year’s Vacation Bible School theme was Cave Quest. As always, Molly and Leah had a great time. Leah was upstairs with the big kids for the first time this year. Jen taught a preschool class downstairs again, marking the first time in years that she hasn’t had one of her own kids in class with her.

On Sunday, Molly, Leah, and Jen sang a couple of their VBS songs in church. Molly and Leah were easy to see, and you can occasionally see Jen’s head appear on the left side as other heads move out of the way. I love how much the girls got into it.

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.