We just returned from a week long vacation to Lake Norman, NC. We had a wonderful time. Every other summer, Mat's parents rent a lake house and his whole immediate family (and all of their significant others and kids) spend a week together on the lake. The last two years we have stayed in the same house. There are 19 of us now, so we need a big house to live in!
We had a wonderful time. We spent the week swimming in the lake, boating, jet skiing, minature golfing, and spending time together. This is a vacation where we don't go too many places, and bring books and sit in the sunshine.
But, to say I am feeling refreshed and relaxed would be a lie. It was so much fun, but because we are still responsible for our three little ones, we were up early every day and chasing them all around. Mat and I don't usually stay up late, but since we don't get to see our family as often as we like, we stayed up late each night visiting.
It was great, though. Let me start from the beginning. We left Thursday the 16th and drove half way there. It is about a 13 hour drive for us from our lovely northern state, so we decided to split the drive in half. We drove to Maryland the first day. We left late Thursday morning - not in a big hurry since we were just going to the hotel to spend the night. The kids did great on the drive. We are blessed with great travelers. We got in just in time for bed for the kids that night.
We left bright and early Friday morning and headed for Lake Norman. We got in around 3pm in the afternoon. It took a little longer than we expected to get there because we hit some traffic. But it wasn't terrible. We also did a grocery trip before we went to the house. Mat scouted out a grocery store via out GPS, and it ended up NOT being a grocery store, but a hole in the wall gas station with a little old man sitting outside of it on a stool. Not even joking.
We got to the house and Mat's sister Carrie and part of her family were already there and getting settled. We had our chance to meet our newest nephew "little E" (I have two nephew's with E as a first initial, so bare with me!) before everyone else got there. We settled in and got unpacked before Mat's parents, aunt and grandma and brother Zac showed up. They brought with them Carrie and Jonathan's older two children who were visiting them in Pennsylvania for a few weeks. My kids were very excited to see their cousins and they were off and running!
Arlington and Mat took a canoe ride while we waited for everyone to get settled. I didn't get a picture of it, unfortunately, but my SIL (sister in law) did, so I will show that to you when I get that. (hint, hint Carrie! LOL) They had a great time canoeing around the lake. When Mat docked the canoe, though, he wobbled a bit and fell in. Unfortunately he was in his clothes because he didn't listen to his super stellar wife who told him to put on his bathing suit. Ah well.
Next to arrive were Mat's sister Teen and her husband Frank. Teen is pregnant and looking VERY cute! We were very excited to see her and see her baby bump.
We had dinner of take out pizza this night since everyone was arriving at different times. Each evening a family is responsible for cooking. Friday night was Mat's brother Zac's night, so we had pizza take out. It was a perfect way to start our week.
Last to arrive were Mat's sister Jess and her husband Tom. They hit a ton of traffic on their way down, so they didn't get there until around 9pm. We were glad to see them and glad they arrived safely. Now we were all together - all 19 of us! We are growing by leaps and bounds. This is the first time the three boy children were at the lake - the last time we were there, we just had Arlington and Finley and Carrie had "M". This time we had added Cainan, "G" and "little E". Amazing!
We spent our first night playing the "Lake Norman Card Game". It probably has another name, but the first year we went to the lake, Mat's dad taught us this game, and the name just stuck. It is a lot of fun to play and we play it every time we were there. Tradition and all!
We watched the sun go down over the lake and rejoiced being together at last. The kids all went to sleep easily after a fun first day.
Saturday started early, of course, with all the kids up and ready to play by 7:15am. This was shopping day. Mat and I had brought just about everything we needed, but Mat's parents and some of his siblings needed to hit the grocery store. They were gone for most of the morning getting ingredients for dinners and lunches, and snacks. You name it! We had so much good food. Our tummies were very happy all week long.
We spent Saturday at the house - mostly in the lake. Arlington wanted to get in first thing in the morning. The mornings were cool, so we tried to put them off at least until 9-10am when the sun would come out. The lake water was warm as usual. So in she and Mat went. I did manage to get Finley and Cainan into the lake as well. Finley liked it for the most part, but she mostly wanted to float on the raft with us or her favorite uncle - Zac. She and Zac have a special bond. She loves hanging out with him and lights up every time she sees him!
Cainan- did not love the water, but got in. He smiled a time or two, but mostly he just sat motionless and waited for the torture to be over. Once he was out he wouldn't get back in that entire day. If we suggested it he would burst into tears. So we didn't push the issue. We also had a kiddie pool that we set up in the yard, and the kids had fun playing in there. And there was also a hot tub at the house that we used a few times as well.
The lake is fun to float on. This house that we have had the last several years has a nice view into a large part of the lake. We can watch boaters going by and we get the waves from the speed boats. It adds some fun to our floating around. The dock is great, and it even has a diving board. Arlington jumped off the diving board a bunch of times- really liked jumping in over and over. Of course. She even did a cannon ball or two!
We had access to all of their inner tubes, rafts, etc. They had some fun stuff to play with. Plus they had life jackets for everyone if needed. We had one life jacket with us, and the rest we were able to borrow from the house. We had use of their kayak and their canoe. It is great.
To tell you a little more about the house - it is a 5 bedroom home with 4 bathrooms and a loft. It is really huge. It has two levels, plus the loft. It has a boat house and it also has a really nice bath house outside. It is the perfect size for our large family. Even with so many people in the house, we didn't feel at all crowded. There are two pull out couches, plus a full size bunk bed set. So everyone had a place to sleep.
Anyway! We spend Saturday floating around. We had a surprise baby shower for Teen and Frank after dinner this night. We had a wonderful dinner prepared by Carrie and Jonathan and then had cake for the shower. Teen and Frank were really surprised and she got a lot of really nice things.
Okay - so that is where I am going to end this post. I am too lazy to put all the pictures through out the post, so here are the pictures in a slide show. Enjoy!
I will be back tomorrow with more lake news. Oh, and by the way - our expensive SLR camera broke on the second day, so we don't have as many pictures as we would like. Mat and I ended up getting a small camera to get us through the trip (and now we have it for backup), but it doesn't take nearly the nice pictures our SLR does. You will see. We are totally bummed.
See you tomorrow!
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