Fun with Cousins at the Lake!

On Friday May 29th, CK flew over to Marietta, GA to pick up his sister Cynthia and her kids to visit us for two weeks! CK, Cynthia and the kids arrived the next afternoon and the girls, dogs, food and everything we needed for our visit was loaded into the car and headed down to the lake to meet them after they drove in from Arlington Airport. We planned a fun week at the lake with the whole crew and then returned to our house for a few days before returning to the lake. Cynthia and her oldest son were able to stay for a short week before they returned to Georgia for work for her and baseball practice for him. Jillian, who is a year older than Olivia and Jackson, who recently turned seven stayed with us for just over a week. Jillian and Olivia have always gotten along well and had fun playing together while Jackson loves following around Sofia and being with her. This visit, it seemed like Olivia and Jillian actually got along even better than in past years while Jackson seemed happier to play with all the girls and didn't follow Sofia around as much as previous visits together. They all had a great time together and we really had a fun time together at the lake. As usual, the kids LOVED being pulled all over the lake on the tube. Chandler and Jackson were absolutely fearless and also incredible at holding on no matter how crazy CK drove the boat! It was very impressive. Meanwhile, the girls had a great time going together except for one particular ride when I was driving with Olivia and Jillian on the tube and I accidentally pressed on the gas in a turn and they both went flying. They actually both came up crying and mad at me, so that was the end of the ride for both of them. I felt terrible!

When we weren't on the boat watching the kids be tugged around on the tube, CK went surfing and actually was able to surf with Olivia and then with Jillian. I don't know how he does it! It was really cool and the girls loved it and had a lot of fun surfing. The jet skis were also a huge draw and Sofia went out a few times with Chandler. She's very good and responsible on the jet ski and the cousins had a great time together. After boating, the kids would smim in our cove and have fun together. They loved trying to pile onto the paddle board and Jackson loved to try and tip them all over, which generally is what happened. It became a fun game and it was really cute to watch them climb on, try to stay on, fall over and then try to get back onto the paddle board. While we were enjoying the lake we had cheeseburgers, spaghetti, made sandwiches for lunch and had a lot of fun together. On their down time, they watched movies at night and played Roblox together on their devices. They enjoyed a very fun time together at the lake!

CK and me taking the kid crew out on their very first boat ride on the lake!

Chandler and Sofia cutting it up.

Jillian and Olivia. Jillian wanted to go a lot faster and have much crazier turns than Olivia was comfortable doing the first few days.

One of the lake sunsets.

Buddy surveying the lake and keeping watch.

The view, which I will never get tired of enjoying!

Chandler on the paddle board and Sofia swimming behind him.

Sofia going down our "slide" which is the tube tied to the back of the boat. It's a pretty decent drop into the water, but the girls loved it.

Jillian going down the slide.

CK and Skipper hanging out on the boat.

Chandler, Jillian and Olivia on the paddle board.

Over they go!

Chandler, Jillian, Olivia, and Jackson on the paddle board with Sofia on the jet ski behind them.

One of many times they all fell off.

Cute cousins!

And our cute dog!

CK surfing with Olivia

And surfing with Jillian

Cousins on the tube during a swim break.

All the cousins on the tube! CK had to go pretty slow since they would all fall off otherwise. It made for cute pictures!

Love with picture!

Skipper playing with his buddy Buppy (his name is actually Buddy, but since we have a Buddy, we call him Buppy which the girls came up with as a combination of "Buddy" and "Puppy." We think it is super clever, so we call him Buppy when he comes over.

Sofia and Chandler on the jet ski.

Love this picture too, although Chandler and Sofia aren't in it.

Jackson and Olivia on the tube. Jackson was very uncertain the first time he went on it, but he soon became a crazy daredevil.

Buddy and me hanging out on the boat.

The cousins and the sunset!

Love this picture too of Jackson and Olivia having fun!

The best sunset of our week! It was incredible!

Skipper on his very first outing on the boat. When he wasn't wondering what was going on on the tube, he was totally fine to sleep and relax.

Jackson and Skipper having a stare off!

Cousins and Skipper.

Sofia and Jackson having fun on the tube.

Chandler and Jackson on the craziest ride of the week!

Skipper, our little boating dog.

Jackson, Jillian and Olivia having fun.

Cousins after a very fun day on the lake!

Such cuties and sweet cousins.

Last Day of School and a NEW Car!

Today was the official last day of 3rd grade for Olivia and 7th grade for Sofia, even though it certainly didn't feel that way. The entire time that the girls were home due to the Covid-19 virus has felt more like a limbo between actual school and summer. Both girls have had limited school work each day and no contact with friends aside from FaceTime calls and texts. The girls have enjoyed sleeping in each morning, eating breakfast and then doing their school work for the day which normally took them about 1-2 hours total! After they were done with their school work, they could watch something on their iPad/computer, play MineCraft together and/or write their next novel. They spent their time on the trampoline and/or swimming. They also loved spending time making slides of Warrior cats and stories that go along with each character. Olivia had a final WebEx with Mrs. Smith and her classmates on Thursday morning and Sofia had received emails from most of her teachers the week before. Olivia was really blue that the WebEx was the end. It still felt weird that school was just "over" without any real feeling of a finish. Both girls were more than happy to continue sleeping in and NOT do any school work. School was certainly strange, but summer promises to be relaxing and different, as well. We'll see how it goes.

After the final WebEx, the girls "celebrated" with their final day of school and posed for a few photos for me. After the photo session, CK and I drove down to the Sowell BMW dealer to buy a brand new X5! My sweet Mercedes-Benz GL 450 had finally reached the end of our relationship together. I loved that 10 year old car, but I'd promised CK the next big mechanical fix would mean the end of us owning it. Unfortunately, it started deciding when it should start and not and that fix turned out to be a pretty expensive undertaking, so we decided to trade it in for a new car. We'd loved at the BMW X-series a few months ago and I loved the size and feel of the X5. It's smaller than the GL 450 but zippy and fun. We picked out a blue X5 and it couldn't be more perfect! We signed all the paperwork and then our salesman, Xander, took us to a room, opened the door and there was the blue X5 with a big bow on it! It was SO cool! We took a few photos and then I drove it off the lot! So exciting!!

That afternoon, the girls swam and both wanted to celebrate the end of the school year with a cake, which they picked out from Market Street earlier that day. So, after a fun time swimming and dinner, the girls enjoyed some delicious cake and were more than happy with the end of the school year. We hope that the upcoming school year starts normally and continues without a huge disruption in their learning and friendships, but time will tell.

Olivia's final 3rd grade WebEx with Mrs. Smith and her classmates. She was really sad to say goodbye and not get a chance to actually see her friends.

And that's a wrap! The FINAL day of 3rd and 7th grade for these two! So excited!

I tried to get a picture of the girls jumping with joy....this is as good as it got.

Little cute Skipper!

Is there any food?

Skipper and me. Figure he will soon be too big to hold.

Our new X5! SO excited!!

The old and the new....

Goodbye sweet car!

Skipper after a swim in the pool.

Celebrating with a little cake! Congratulations to Olivia and Sofia!

Sweet girls will soon be in 4th and 8th grades! Yikes!

A little flashback to the first day of the school year!

Heading Home with Skipper!

We originally planned on leaving Tuesday morning but the weather was going to be pretty unpleasant on Tuesday and it was going to be beautiful on Monday, so CK decided we that we should leave on Monday after lunch. We were a little nervous how Skipper would react in the plane, since it would be over 5 hours before we'd be back in Texas. CK did plan a stop about 2.5 hours into our trip to break up the flight, let the dogs out and to stretch our legs.

We spent the morning packing up and then enjoyed a delicious chicken enchilada recipe from Connie that the girls loved, so I was sure to get the recipe from her. We loaded up the plane, gave out lots of hugs and thanks for such a great weekend together, and headed for Texas. Skipper, who seems to be uncertain or even fearful of most everything, didn't even seem to notice that we were in an airplane that moved or made a lot of noise! He curled up in between the girls and completely fell asleep. He was great! Meanwhile Buddy sat on my lap in the front seat. He really doesn't sit completely comfortably but he was fine and was more than happy to sleep throughout the flight too.

We stopped in Mississippi to get Skipper to go potty and for all of us to stretch out legs. He actually peed right away and both dogs drank a lot of water. There was a sweet family with two little girls and they had a great time playing and petting Skipper. He was actually quite good and was so happy to be with the little girls. We hung out at the airport for awhile and then we loaded back up and continued on our way to Texas. We made it hope and he continued to sleep like a pro for the entire trip. He was great! We got to the house and unpacked all the puppy things - the crate and Sofia set up the playpen that Casey lent to us. The girls really wanted the puppy to sleep with them, alternating every other night. They both agreed to wake up at 7am to take the puppy out to go potty and since he's so good at cuddling and sleeping with them already, we will see how it goes. We might be crazy for getting a puppy, but the girls excitement and happiness makes it worth it. Let's hope that their enthusiasm continues!!

Grandma with her girls and Skipper!

I can NOT believe how big Sofia is compared to her Grandma! We were just visiting in March and she wasn't taller than her Grandma then!

Buddy is ready for the flight home.

Skipper awake briefly before his long sleep to Texas.

Let the snoozing begin!

Skipper and Olivia.

More sleeping....

and sleeping....

and sleeping!

Skipper's first look at Texas! At the airport ready to drive home.

First night sleeping with Olivia. Went great!

He's just SO cute!!