Day Two Festivities and Antics

Day two dawned fairly early for me and my Dad. We were on the back deck sharing a cup of coffee by about 6:15 in the morning. I had my camera and I was taking pictures of a woodpecker and the sun coming up on the lake. We were enjoying each others company and chatting about this, that and the other. When our coffee cups were empty and we needed a quick potty break we decided to head inside.

Wouldn't you know the door to the back deck had one of those new crazy doorknobs that you think is unlocked when you twist it on the inside, but you get outside and it is not. We were locked out of the house. I was still in my jammies and both of us had to go to the bathroom in a big way.

Of course our predicament made us laugh. REALLY HARD. That made the bathroom situation all the more urgent.

We peered through all the windows we could from the back deck and didn't see anyone else stirring inside. We had to do something, so we decided to walk around to the front of the house to see if by some chance the front door was open. We were both barefoot and had to traverse the side yard filled with those super pointy gumballs. Dad took on to the foot and let out a yelp. Made us both laugh even harder. It is a wonder we didn't wake the whole house up.

We wiggled the front doorknob - of course it is locked. I was never happier to have my camera in my hand.

Bob glancing through the window to see if anyone has wandered into his viewing area that he can flag down to let us in.

It was getting urgent so we started knocking quietly at first, then louder and louder until my mother staggered to the door. She gave us a look. I think it was the same look my dad gave her the day before when she came back from her ice excursion with a cracked tail light and four half melted bags of ice. When she opened the door he hurried past her and said "We're even." I cracked up. His dumb thing canceled out her dumb thing.

Of course, our laughter and antics woke up most of the rest of the house. They weren't nearly as amused as we were!

We all fixed breakfast and I just had to share these two pictures below.

This is my 90 year old Granny and her mixing bowl full of cereal and fruit.

These are cherries with the pits in her cereal bowl. I thought that was a little overkill on the fiber. Goodness sakes, no wonder she has to go uncontrollably at unlikely times and places in any given day.

After breakfast a group of us would head out for a walk. It was hilly and hot and hard. Exercising on vacation should be outlawed. We had old country dogs following us, barking and carrying on. One of my favorite lines from the entire week came during one of these walks. "The Nice One" doesn't exercise on a regular basis and thought she was struggling more than most. I kept telling her I was struggling too with the heat and the hills. So these two dogs are following us as we head back to the house, we are all red faced and sweaty. The dogs are finally getting used to us and are walking in between us all just barking occasionally. "The Nice One" says "I see what is happening here. They are trying to cut the weak one from the pack. They are going to drag me off in that ditch". We all fell out laughing.

Home from the walk we immediately changed into our swim gear. Can I just take a second here to say, putting on a bathing suit when you are hot and sweaty is damn near impossible. I felt like I was putting on scuba gear. I have never ever put on scuba gear, but it is what I think it would feel like.

There was a lot of this. Chip loved the scuba breathing. He would stay underwater and talk and laugh. It was so funny.

And underwater photography.

Lots of butts in the air and nets in the water.

A lot of "Do you see the Queen?" "Where's Penguin?" "No, you may not jump off the top deck without a life vest." "Who has the other oar?" "Did Chuck go in the house?"

It was constant scanning of the water and counting heads. I am so thankful there were lots of us to keep tabs on these kids.

Hubby chasing down the sea life for a picture. The Queen was begging him to catch one in a net.

I didn't get nearly enough exercise on my walk (LIE) so I decided to try to swim across the lake. Took a couple of kayakers with me in case I cramped up. I didn't. Made it all the way. On the way back, hubby swam with me. He was swimming way faster than me, which left our kayaker in a bit of a pickle. Go with the fast swimmer who sinks like a rock or stay with the slower swimmer who is a human bouy and can float for days. He tried to stay right between us. We both made it back safe and sound.

We played in the water until about 4:30 or so every day. Then is was up to the house to clean up and eat dinner. On Monday night we had Mexican Fiesta night. We all ate well.

Kids wanted to try their hand at fishing again.

Hasselhoff barely was able to pull this whopper out of the water. I think this fish was born last week.

Penguin pulls a good size brim out of the water.

With that concentration you can do anything Penguin.

Harold got brave enough to start taking the fish off the hook for people. That is a big step for a kid who won't hold a roly poly. He was pretty proud of himself.

Hubby and Mer measured the depth of the lake with their fishing line. It went down 82 feet. Holy Crap - that is deep! Should we be wearing life vests while fishing?

Now that is definitely a keeper, Chuck! Someone get the basket!!

Guke caught a cute little bass. He turned him loose with a message to go tell his father and big friends that there were some yummy worms for dinner. We want the big one!

We passed on games Monday night since everyone was tired. Instead we made fun of my parents and granny sharing a room. We took one of the twin beds from another room in the house and put it in the room with my folks. Mer and Granny were early to bed most nights and on this night Guke walked by and said "Gosh, this is reminding me of something. Anyone ever seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?" If you haven't seen the movie, there is a scene where Charlie goes to his house and his four grandparents are laid up in a bed in the middle of the house. They are all bedridden for some reason. We started throwing chocolate bars to Granny and Mer and soon there was singing and dancing reenactments being done from the movie.

More hard laughing and I may be wrong, but I think someone may have peed their pants. It's a problem. Next year I am handing out Depends as welcome gifts!

Come on back for a recap of Day 3! It is alot more of the same, but we have some new faces show up, a BIG fish and we get back to our game night!

We Arrive - Let the Fun Begin

We rolled into the great state of Alabama about noon and started coordinating with our other family members to see who would arrive when. It looked like we were all on track to arrive by the 3:00 check in time.



We had to make a quick pit stop and the boys grabbed their ball gloves to throw around a baseball for a bit.

There was a nice little lawn area that they set up a little three way throw-a-thon.

On the way back from the bathroom, I saw this sign. KEEP OFF THE GRASS people! We just got into the state and we are already breaking rules.

The coordination was unbelievable. We all arrived at the house within just a few minutes of each other. We had an unfortunate event with our GPS unit and managed to arrive last, even though we were within throwing distance of the house before two other cars. They were all holding up a L on their forehead because we were last and losers. Mean.

We opened the Suburban and stuff started falling out everywhere. We packed that baby to the gills. It was sure nice to travel in though!

The Magnificent Seven together again! Let me give you their code names for my blog:

Back row: Toby, Hasselhoff and Harold
Front Row: The Queen, Penguin, Chuck and Chip.

Here is my brother, Guke with his lovely bride, Ms. Tennessee, and their two boys Penguin and Chuck.

The fellas all raced down to the water to check out the lake.

Immediately shirts were flying off and people were flying in.

It appears that Grandpa and Mer are directing this chaos. It got a little different when Ms. Safety (that's me!) showed up on the scene. It was fun while it lasted kids, now everyone get into a life vest.

We drug out all the toys.

Big kids gave rides to little kids.

Chip was putting Hasselhoff's kayak under water.

Harold giving Penguin a thrilling ride.

My sister, who we will call "The Nice One" goes out for a spin with the Queen.

Floating with the Queen.

Grandpa and Chip hanging out in the boat.

It was docked - we didn't have the keys - but he sure looks cool sitting behind the wheel, doesn't he?

The boys race the kayaks out to the middle of the lake and just sit there and have a little pow wow. They floated out there for a long while just shooting the briefs! I think they all were happy to be together.

Little did they know what was happening outside the lake! There was another adventure of sorts with this mother and daughter team that got lost for 2 hours on their way back from getting ice at the store. The store was maybe 8 miles away and they put 42 miles on mom's car looking for the house. They also backed into a mailbox and cracked mom's tail light. Granny also had to go to the bathroom and all I can say is I am thankful it was a desolate area. It was an incident that did not include either of them taking their cell phones with them. Finally, a stranger let them borrow a cell phone and they called for help. Hubby went out to find them and showed them the way back. The ice survived, for the most part.

The kids were oblivious to the perils of the ice run.

They jumped from the top deck of the dock about 7,436,820 times each.

At first it was terrifying, but we stationed lifeguards at many points and eventually got used to the screams of joy and agony when they landed badly. Guke looks ready to save someone, doesn't he?

I took a turn in the hammock chair and it was then that I realized I might have a little seasick problem. Sitting on that top deck, swinging in that hammock made me want to barf - BADLY. So badly I couldn't drink. That is not good.

After a delicious dinner of seafood jambalaya, we headed back out for some early evening fishing.

Bob spent the majority of his time just like this. Kids had lines tangled, bait fell off, reels wouldn't work. It was exhausting.

Toby was able to manage his own line thank goodness.

We had lots of supervisors, but there was still alot of hooks flying around.

Dang, Toby hooked Bob's shirt just walking by him. It is a wonder no one got hurt.

Hasselhoff stayed in the kayak and was able to rescue several lines that were thrown in bushes, over bridges, stuck in rocks. It was a full time job.

Hey grandpa...my line is tangled, my reel won't wind back in, my hook is stuck under a rock, are there more worms, can I try a plastic lure. Fishing is not the relaxing, quiet activity I envisioned.

This crew seems to be enjoying it.

These baby fish didn't apparently realize how chaotic it was above water! Chip was the first one to reel in a fish.

Harold caught two brim at one time! Good work. I think every person who threw a line in the water caught a fish. Many of them caught more than one. We had about five keepers and about 15 throw 'em backs. We let them all go in the end.

After fishing, we joined these Amish gentlemen in the house for more fun and games.

This Amish guy needs a bigger hat! The smiling face under this hat is the spouse of The Nice One. He is also supremely nice, but he earned the name Mario at the lake and will therefore be called Mario!

Mario kicked off the Pictionary tournament drawing first for the Judges Team. He had to work hard to make things clear for Mer and Grandpa. It was terribly entertaining to see the communication in action.

The Queen kicked off the drawing for her team. You want to talk about funny - have a little kid try to draw "Ankle" or "Turkey". The words were pretty easy, but a child's drawing left alot to the imagination. I think the funniest part was the way they would look at the rest of their team like "Hello, how can you morons not know what this is??" They were completely exasperated with us!

Guke trying to give Chip some tips on what he could draw. Chips response - "I got it. I got it." We got a couple right, but we got lots of the "You guys must be morons" glances from Chip.

This is Bob's face while he is drawing. He is probably mouthing the word while he was drawing it. Let's just say there was a significant amount of cheating that happened each night, but it probably all evened out in the end.

The big winners on Pictionary Night were Guke, Ms. Tennessee, Penguin and Chuck. They dominated the drawing contest and then commenced to leg wrestle to determine which giant candy item they would choose as their prize. Ms. Tennessee won that one.

Day One was a blast. We were all exhausted, our faces hurt from laughing, someone may have peed their pants and it was lights out by 10:30. More fun to come.