Family Lake Weekend

Bert texted me one morning at the beginning of February and asked me if I wanted to take a trip to the lake on March 12-14th.  My parents and aunt and uncle have a cabin near Toccoa on Lake Hartwell.  My grandparents and their kids moved the cabin to their piece of lake property when I was 2.  We have been going to it for family lake weekends/weeks/days ever since.  I don't think it has changed much at all in that time, which is another thing I love about it.  Soooo many great memories that I'm thankful to have!  

I of course jumped on it and called my mom to make sure she thought it would be fine for us to come up that weekend.  She said they would love for us to use it. It makes me happy just to be there.  I told Bert while we were there that I literally don't think you could be there and not relax...he agreed.  You can't get cell phone service, there are no TV channels to watch (although you can watch movies), and the lake is peaceful and beautiful.... P.E.R.F.E.C.T.  

Mimi met us at the lake house to let us in and also to bring us some groceries for the weekend.  We brought lots of food from home, but we still needed a good many items and mom volunteered to pick them up for us so that we wouldn't have to stop by the grocery store.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again....she loves us well.  

We started out our first night there with pizza and Mimi teaching Emily and Hannah how to play checkers.  Mimi had to call Bert for backup though as she couldn't remember all the rules.  Ha!  They had fun!  

When you ask Claire to give you a hug she snuggles her head to your chest and smiles really big.  She loves this "game" and we love the snuggles.  Win-win!  

Shortly after the picture above Mimi headed to Katherine's to help out with Baby Ressie for the night, with plans to come down to the lake the next afternoon and spend the next night with us. 

After we finally got Hannah settled down (E and C were worn out and went right to sleep), Bert and I enjoyed a fun game of Yahtzee.  I had to get my nightly hot chocolate before we played and I decided I would use this GA Tech mug just to get Bert riled up.  He just rolled his eyes and said "you would."  Haha!:)  We played 5 games and I won 4 out of the 5, but I don't want to brag, so I won't say anything else about that. :)  

On Friday it was rainy and cold so we decided to head to town and run a few errands.  

We stopped by Katherine and Brett's and Bert got to meet Ressie for the first time.  He loved getting to hold her while she slept!  Sweet girl!  

After that stop it was time to go by Papa's office.  The girls loooove going to Papa's work.  He was showing them some video of animal sounds.  They were enjoying it!:)  

Later that afternoon it was time for more games.  The girls had never played Twister before so we thought that would be a fun one to try.  Emily and Hannah were cracking us up.  

I don't think you can play Twister and not laugh.  After Emily and Hannah and I  played, it was time for Bert and I to play together.  We let the girls spin for us, but they were taking sooooo long to spin and call out our next move.  Then they would have a discussion about whose turn it was to spin next, all while Bert and I were trying to hold our pose in some crazy, contorted position! We finally had to just call it a game.  It was clear to us that we're not as young as we used to be!:) 

She looooves her Daddy, y'all!  She calls him DaDa, but she goes up an octave on the second "Da" every time she says his name.  She just gets so excited about seeing him!  

On Friday night Mimi and Papa had dinner with us.  The girls love playing with Papa.  He played "the bear" (where you raise your hands, "roar", pretend to be hibernating, etc). This is probably their favorite game right now. They ask their daddy to "be the bear" almost every night!  It just makes them cackle with laughter and they run to me asking me to "save us from the bear!"  He also took them on a horsey back ride, tickled them and just loved on them.  We're glad he stopped by!

On Saturday it stopped raining and we got to head down to the dock for a little while before we headed back to Greenville.  

Emily and Hannah had been planning on doing a little fishing with their Daddy and they were excited about it.  The weather didn't totally cooperate with us, but Bert made sure they got to "fish" for a few minutes before we headed back home.  They both loved it!  

Watts family lake photo!   

The weather was rainy and cold that weekend, so some might say it wasn't the perfect lake weekend, but I really do think it was perfect for us.  We just loved being at the lake house, spending time together, playing games, and looking out at the beautiful lake.  Looking forward to making more memories here with our girls!