Vacation with Friends

So, it's sort of an annual thing. Several families get together and go on vacation together. Tons of fun! Normally it's just three families but this year we added a fourth family. So much fun!! Here is the one from 2011 and the one from 2010. It's tons of fun and I am so glad that I have friends to go vacationing with. Is vacationing a word?

Day 1: We all arrived at different times and fended for ourselves for dinner.

Collin looked so grown up in the car with his crossed legs while he read a book.

Ryanne, not so quiet, and decided to fake sleep for a picture. :)

 We went to Fatz for dinner! Woot! :) And... my veggie loving son ordered tomato soup and salad. The rest of us ordered regular food. It just always surprises me what he orders and loves. LOL!

 We finally made it to the house!!

 Did I mention the house was on a lake with a dock?

Here is a view from the back of the house. Isn't it pretty? And, yes, that's a hot tub on the basement porch. ;)

Day 2: We started the day with a short hike to a waterfall. Okay, the hike was only half a mile one way. Easy Peasy! However, the drive to get back there was scary. I was sure we were lost and driving to our doom. The road was incredibly narrow and I could see the drop off on my side. I was sure that Paul was driving too close and we were going to crash. I wanted him to make our mini van hug that mountain. But, he thought it was funny that the drive scared me so he made the most out of it. LOL! =P Anyways, we arrived to the trail head safely.

Here is a shot of the whole group at the top of the waterfall!! :) Do you see all those preggo bellies up there? Not to mention the new born? Yeah, that's why we chose a short hike. ;) Then, my kids being the wild hoodlum children that they are decided they wanted to play in the water. But, another family joined us with her wild children as well. ;) They had so much fun playing in the icy cold mountain water. Here are some pictures of their fun!

And a video...

On the way back to the car, there was a hollowed out tree stump on the side of the path. Of course, being the incredibly cautious parents that we are, we stuck our kids inside. :)

Just so you can get an idea of this... Collin and Ryanne were both standing up.

The rest of the afternoon of day 2 was spent (after naptime and Collin and I finished school work) was spent playing in the lake. For obvious reasons I did not have a camera down there. My husband did push me in once so... yeah. Better not to have a camera or phone in the pocket when near a lake with him around. ;)

That night, as usual, after kids were in bed the parents were found gathered around tables playing games. So fun!!

Day 3: That morning, Collin, Ryanne, and I had breakfast and then hopped in the hot tub while it was still cool and before everyone else was up. It was fun sitting in the mountain air with just the three of us. We turned the heat down so the hot tub was only about 99. It was like bath water with lots of jets and chlorine. :) My dark blue shorts became much lighter with a slight green tint to them. Yeah, a lot of chlorine.

Later in the morning, all the moms took the kids to the park to play! Yay for free entertainment!! :)

 Collin sitting in a weird spinning tulip type of thing.

Here are the older 6 of the 8 kids we had with us. :)

We had Collin take a picture of us moms. It's a little fuzzy but I think he did pretty well considering he's 6 and it was the camera on my phone. :)

After this, we went horseback riding. Well, the dads, me and four of the oldest kids. Soooo much fun for the kids. We went on a trail on the mountains through a national forest. I didn't take a camera with me because I was afraid I'd drop it but one of the other moms took a picture of us on the horses.

 Collin was lucky and got a buddy saddle. Isn't it cool? I've never seen one before. It buckles onto the back of a regular saddle. Collin and I rode on Delilah. She was the shortest of all the horses so she walked a bit slower than Uncle Buck (you'll see him next) who rode in front of us. Unfortunately for the Monsons and Gipsy though b/c they were behind us. :) Delilah was a good girl though who went where ever I told her. She did not like mud though so she did whatever she could to avoid it. ;)

Ryanne did not get a buddy saddle. She rode on the front of Paul's saddle. Paul and Ryanne rode Uncle Buck who was not as well behaved as Delilah. He, apparently, did not like Paul. He tried to bite his leg once. I am glad that I had Delilah and not Uncle Buck.

After we got home from riding horses (it was only a 1 hour trail ride) we played in the lake again! YAY!! That night the parents stayed up and.... ready for it.... played games!! :)

Day 4: This was Sunday so.... Paul took the kids out to the lake and taught them to skip rocks while I packed up the kitchen stuff. He took a video of it. Maybe he'll post it later but Collin was having trouble getting the throw right. Paul finally told him that it was like a double block in TaeKwonDo... Collin got it right then. ;)

ETA video: 

We all loaded up the van together and we listened to Scripture Scouts and EFY CDs all the way home. hehe! We were worried b/c we forgot to get gas on Saturday but we made it all the way home on half a tank. Woot! No breaking the Sabbath for this family. Hooray!

And... that was our third annual group vacation.