Lake Trip!

My dear niece, Emma, turned two this weekend. I can't believe that it's already been two years since she was born. And Lucy's birthday is right around the corner.  Wow.

We celebrated by traveling to Oklahoma and staying at my sister-in-law's parents' lake house.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've been on a boat in a lake, so I had no idea it was going to be SO MUCH FUN.

We got a later start than we meant to, and the drive ended up being longer than we thought...

 Especially when you consider we hit three temporary construction lights like this:

 Aaaaaaaand a train with 143 coal cars:

But we finally made it!  Once we arrived, we dropped our bags off in our rooms (yes, rooms...the place was so big that, even with my parents, Alex and Molly, and Molly's parents, Charlie got his own!) and headed out to the boat.

 We geared up and boated out to a restaurant on the water. It was spectacular and our boy didn't stop smiling or saying, "I'm on a BOAT!" the whole time.

The kids did surprisingly well, considering they were both up until 10:45.  We had to wake them up at 8:30 when my dad made French toast (his is the only French toast I will eat) and then we headed back out to the water.

I rode only for a short while. The jetski wasn't for me. But it was for my boys.  They rode that thing for quite a while, and even when we did decide it was time to swim, Rick followed the boat in the jetski, zooming all over the place and getting himself soaked in the process.  It was fun to watch.  And I'm loving what the jetski did for Charlie's hair:

 

We had lunch at the house and celebrated this adorable little girl's SECOND birthday!

It was a wonderful weekend of fun and family.  A HUGE, HUGE thank you to John and Jackie for hosting us.  It was such a blast!