Cousins and "The Spooky Old Tree"

I loved having my cousins come up from San Antonio for the weekend.  We played hard, got sunburned (again!), and had a great time together.  It's nice spending time with family, and getting to know Kimberly as an adult.  She's a great mom and wife, and I admire her a lot. 

We pulled the tube with all these critters on it.  This tube is HUGE!  Every time we pop one and have to replace it, it just gets bigger.  I might even say this tube is TOO big.  Seriously, it's almost as big as the boat.

One of Josh's best moves--he took a lot of abuse and kept "plowing" forward!

The kids learned to play Charades and Simon Says.  Josh took more abuse, this time from my kids.

"Do they dare go into that spooky old tree?  Yes, they dare!"

Saw this on the shores of Lake Georgetown.  All it's missing are a few sharp-toothed buzzards!

First Boat Trip of the Season

Boating can be very stressful for me.  When I am unsure of our environment, when the weather is bad, or if the water is choppy, or when there is too much work involved, I am a reluctant boater.  However, because of our "research" a couple of weeks ago, I knew what to expect at our new lake, Lake Georgetown.  Friday night we did all the work to wash the boat and get it ready--it was DISGUSTING from being in storage.  Let's just say little animal footprints were the least of its problems.

Saturday morning we drove up to the lake, where we were one of the first boats out there, and had a great morning.  The nice thing about Texas in the summer is, when you wake up it's already 80 degrees, so if you head out at 8:00, you already wish you were in the water.  The other nice thing is that the lake is about the same temperature as our outdoor swimming pool.  It felt great!  It was windy, so we didn't ski or anything, but the kids used our new tube and had a great time.  Seth was wanting to go faster!  I think swimming regularly in a pool is making the kids a lot more confident in the water.  Even Seth swam a little bit.

We had a relaxing morning on the boat, which I didn't think would ever happen in Texas!  So come for a visit, because we are now officially ready to show you a good time!

Dancing in a Texas Rainstorm

And sailing boats in the gutter:

Reconnaissance Mission

Since we moved to Texas, we have only been out boating a handful of times.   Partly because the boat is far away in a storage unit, and partly because the few times we went were a little disappointing.  So on Memorial Day, we decided to check out a lake 20 minutes from our house that we heard was a pretty good place to go.  We packed up my parents and a picnic and drove up to three different parks to investigate.  We found a lovely lake with three boat ramps that were not terribly busy, even on a hot holiday weekend.  I think we have found our new boating place.  It's not surrounded by evergreens, but it has its own unique beauty, and we can get there easily on a hot afternoon after work. 

Picnic under the shade of a shelter--there was a nice breeze, and in the shade we were actually comfortable, even though it was about 95 degrees.

The kids wanted to walk down to the lake.  I gave them my usual speech:  "Watch for snakes!!"

Thankfully, no snakes!