The Long Awaited Super Epic Picture Post

I have not posted in FOREVER!!! I don't really have an excuse - actually I have lots of excuses (too sleepy, too busy reading books and sewing, too busy fighting with children, etc) but no real VALID excuses. So to make up for it, please enjoy the first of two SUPER EPIC posts full of pictures!!!

Grandma and Grandpa came up for a visit. It was awesome, we had the best time! One of the most fun things we did was go to a cabin at Big Lake (the same cabin as before) to have fun and spend the night. When we got there it was raining. Which is not surprising since it had been raining every day for the previous 31 DAYS STRAIGHT!!! It was a record, a terrible terrible rainy record. But we don't care about rain. When we are ready to have fun we have fun.

So we did some inside stuff first, like puzzles:

And that was fun. Then we decided to do some outside stuff in the rain. We had become so acustomed to the rain at this point that it was no big deal. So we paddle boated:

And we had rain kayaking and played Ladder Golf (or whatever the name is)

And then something miraculous happened. It stopped raining!!! So we had a fire and roasted marshmallows and had s'mores and even more fun.

Cory drove out to spend the evening with us and something even more miraculous happened. The sky started to get clear - as in blue sky!

We went to bed hopeful, and when we woke up all our weather dreams had come true!!! It was a GORGEOUS day!!! The sky was blue, the sun was out and the lake was perfectly flat and quiet.

And that made us all very happy!!!

Aaron and I decided to take advantage of the totally calm and quiet lake (and the numerous babysitters available to us) and we went out on the kayaks for a long time. It was awesome. I would have stayed out all day but my arms were tired :)

And there was even more paddle boating, everyone paddle boated!!!

After the sun had been up for a few hours, Ella decided that it was more than warm enough for her to wear her swimming suit. It was maybe 60 degrees.

So she wore it with her winter/puddle boots. And then she fed the ducks.

And once Ella does something, Avery HAS to do it too.

And why not, the water was barely freezing cold!

Aaron couldn't let the girls have all the fun, he had been dying to get on the jet ski - and after many efforts to get it started, he finally had his chance! I even went on it. And no matter what anyone says, I did not scream the entire time (just most of the time) and Aaron WAS trying to tip me into the water the whole time!

Then Ella had a turn. Aaron promised they would go slow. So I said okay, even though I was worried that she would fall off into the lake.

She LOVED IT! After a minute or two she was yelling for Daddy to "go faster" so they went faster! And then Daddy thought it would be funny to give me a heart attack - can you see what is wrong with this picture?

Yep, that is Ella driving the jet ski. Yikes! Of course she loved it. They came back in for some lunch and it got a little cloudy and cold. But that isn't going to stop the fun. So Aaron and Ella put jackets on over their swimming suits and went back out on the jet ski.

Shortly after this picture was taken the jet ski tipped over and Aaron and Ella fell into the lake. Then I had a heart attack and died. And then Aaron rescued Ella, got back on the jet ski himself and drove back to the dock. When Ella got to the dock she was smiling, laughing and shivering like crazy. We got her into the shower and the whole time she was saying that it was "SO MUCH FUN!" and she wanted to do it again. She is insane. Just like her father.

So despite the jet ski incident, we had the best time! We didn't want to leave! So we stayed a while longer! The sun was back out and we sat on the deck and played a game and soaked in the sunshine.

It was so fun!!! By the time we were finally ready to go home the girls were so exhausted they were both asleep within 5 minutes. They slept the whole drive home, and didn't even wake up when we put them to bed. Now that is a sign of a fun weekend!!!