Canyon Lake

The kids decorated their own cookies with icing and sprinkles...yum!

Daddy and Luke walking by the river.

Playing in the freezing cold river water.

The cold water did not stop our group from having fun!

Daddy skipping rocks at the lake.

Mason found a frog, so Isaac and Kacy had to check it out.

Adilyn and Isaac held hands as they ran back to the house! Isaac reached for her hand and once she noticed, she grabbed his hand and they were off.

Beautiful sunset from our balcony.

Swimming in the lake.

Mike opened up the piano to play a beautiful song, and the little ones all decided they needed to add to it. ;-)

Isaac with his ladies.

All 9 kids, lined up by age...1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7.

We just got home from a fantastic weekend spent at Canyon Lake with some of our best friends! This is the annual trip that we do with our friends (the guys have all been friends since high school), and it is always a blast! The last three years we went to Lake Placid, but we decided to branch out this year, so we found a place on Canyon Lake. It turned out to be a great house, perfect for our situation and group of families. Every family had their own bedroom, there were two living areas, and a pool right out the back door. Not to mention being on the lake, which was beautiful! Our group this year consisted of 9 kids and 8 adults!

We got there on Thursday, around 5:00, so we unloaded and visited briefly before it was time for some dinner...burgers and hotdogs. After dinner the kids all played a while, before it was time for bed. Bedtime was the time of the day that made me the most nervous on the trip because Luke has not slept anywhere but his own bed since this trip last year! And that's because he refuses to sleep anywhere else. :-/ The first night was tough, Isaac layed down without a problem, he was excited to sleep in a BIG boy bed (it was a full size bed). I tried to do the usual routine with Luke, but that didn't work, he just cried. So then I held him until he fell alseep...after just over an hour or so he was finally asleep in his bed. Unfortunately, that only lasted about an hour and he was awake again, crying. I rushed in and got him out of the room before he woke up Isaac, and then just let him sit with us for a while. Sadly, there was a search and rescue team out on the lake behind the house looking for someone who had drowned. So we spent the evening sitting outside on the deck watching the crews. Drownings in a lake are something you hear about often, but to actually see the rescue going on made it real and scary. My heart goes out to the family of the man who drowned. Luke enjoyed sitting outside. When we decided to go to bed we took Luke with us and put him in bed between us (usually a huge no no for us), he went right to sleep! We woke up at about 3:30 and moved him to his bed, which went smoothly and he slept there until 8:00 the next morning.

We decided to head out to the Guadalupe River to swim on Friday morning, we usually just stay at the house, so it was fun to venture out to something new. We rented one tube per family and jumped in for a swim. The water was freezing, but we still had a lot of fun in the water and playing on the shore. After some time there we headed back for naps and a little down time. We spent the afternoon swimming at the house and just hanging out. After a yummy chicken dinner cooked by the Hendersons, I took Luke to get him ready for bed and the rest of the group headed down to the lake to fish and play by the water. Isaac had been begging to fish since we got there, so he was excited about this. They didn't catch anything, but they had fun trying and enjoyed just being by the water. I had to lay with Luke for an hour, letting him sleep on my chest but was then able to move him to his bed. He slept from 7:30 pm - 8:30 am!

Saturday we decided to stay around the house and swim in the pool and the lake. It was a great day! The kids all had so much fun playing together inside and out...they did so well sharing toys, and the big kids took good care of the little ones. We had some play doh and coloring time in the afternoon, it was good down time. Isaac loved running around with the big kids and also playing more quietly with the younger ones. Luke loved being around so many kids and following them all over. He also enjoyed all of the attention he got from the kids, if he needed something there was always someone there to help.

We made some special memories as a family as well as with our friends. This trip is one I look forward to every year, and this year did not disappoint! I'm so thankful that we've been blessed with such a great group of friends!