4th of July 2012

Every year for the past 5 years we have joined our friends at Lake Sinclair for the 4th of July.  It is a trip we look forward to every year and I hope that we will continue to do it for many, many years to come.  Gavin has gone the past 3 times but this year was the first time he could really enjoy it.  We also stayed longer than we have the in the past with him so I was a little concerned about how we were going to entertain him that long.

Below is a picture from before we left on Tuesday that I just had to share because it was so cute, how he has his little hand in his pocket, propped up watching Curious George.

All the planning and choreographing of the schedules in the world to get the most nap time in the car only got us 45 minutes max when what we needed was 2 hours minimum.  I love everything about our car seat except the fact that it will not recline! Even in the recline position!!

Thankfully we made excellent time or at least until the horrible storm hit us right outside of Milledgeville.  It was raining so hard, I could barely see and apparently the wind was so bad, it took down several power lines across town which in turn, took out 95% of the traffic lights, 95% of all stores/restaurants, and even the crossing signals at the RR tracks.  It was a sweaty, nerve-racking experience trying to navigate our way thru town without instigating or being involved in a serious wreck.  Praise the Lord that our guardian angel was able to keep up with my lead foot on 75 and intercede on our behalf, once the storm slowed us down!

We made it to our favorite Milledgeville restaurant which thankfully never lost power, The Brick, and attempted to get three really excited to be out of the car boys, to eat dinner.  I apologize to all of the other patrons that night, although I have to say they were really good.  But even really good, their where still three of them.....

Thankfully we made it to the house in one piece and finally got Gavin calmed down enough to put him to bed about 2 hours late, but hey what is vacation for if not to stay up late, right???  To bad he didn't remember that you are also supposed to sleep late.....

Our wonderful view from the house

The serious lack of pictures is due to the fact that we spent so much time in or around the water and my camera spent most of the time packed safely away in a bag, so I am hoping to get some pictures from some of the other people who where there in the near future.  But figured I better post what I had before the details got fuzzy.

Tom and Anna brought both of their boys, Jackson is a couple of years older than Gavin and Griffin is about 8 months younger than Gavin.  

 And Julie and Michael brought their oldest daughter, Avery, who Gavin already had tons of fun with the weekend we went to the zoo.

I was worried that the older kids may not want Gavin to play and that all the boys may overwhelm poor Avery but they got along SOOOO well!!! They played and played and played and played! The only hiccup was when it was naptime or bedtime for Gavin he flipped out, because he was having so much fun and didn't want to quit.  


On the 4th we took a lot of boat rides and went out on the jet ski several times, all of which Gavin thought was super fun.  

We even attempted to catch a fish or two.  Jackson caught two that day and all Gavin did was pull his worm out of the water, yell "I got it" and then drop it back in....

My little fisherman

 What an adorable picture!!

We decided to let Gavin stay up for the fireworks this year, and even had some of our own.  Well the late night before and the early rise that morning, didn't help Gavin's mood any so I probably should have just put him to bed. And then Tom nearly blew off the left side of my rear end with a incorrectly loaded firework, while I was holding Gavin.  We also didn't consider how loud the fireworks were going to be since we were all sitting on the dock while they were shooting them off.  All of this added up to Gavin thinking that fireworks were horrible and scary and not even wanting to watch them from inside the house, instead of how cool and pretty they really were.  And he really missed a wonderful show from someone right across the lake from us that had to have spent a zillion dollars to shoot them off in their yard.  Oh well, maybe he will have forgotten the experience by next year....


Thursday was pretty much the same, except another couple with two kids joined in on the fun and poor little Avery finally had another little girl to play with.  

I don't think I took a single picture on Friday so I am really hoping that Tom sends his to me, hint, hint..... because I know he got some really funny ones of the impromptu dance party that we had with all of the kids.  Julie had just turned on Avery's favorite song, so we were in there dancing with her and Jackson when in rushed Gavin from outside, with the funniest look on his fact, like " hey don't start the party without me!!" I wish I could properly describe it to you in words, because we all died laughing.  Gavin loves to dance!!  And thankfully has more rhythm than his poor Daddy :-) but is still really funny to watch.  I really wish one of us would have had a video camera.  We probably could have entered it on AFV and won a bunch of money.  


We woke up Saturday all tanned and relaxed and loaded all our cars for the trip back home.  It was a wonderful time full of laughter and great friends.  I hope that we can continue this tradition for a super long time and that all of our kids grow up to be great friends just like their parents are.