family vaca

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  My entire family stayed in a lake house right on Lake Hamilton for the weekend.  We hung out, played some games, wakeboarded, cruised around the lake, went to a Bathhouse for a mineral bath and massage, and also celebrated Carson's 2nd birthday! Here are a few pictures from our weekend with the family.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great long weekend vacation!!

this is why i don't post pictures of me wakeboarding

Alternately titled: "The post in which I make fun of myself"

Remember here when I said I didn't post any pictures of me wakeboarding because all the faces I made were awful.  

When we went to the lake Monday, I tried to get some good pictures of me wakeboarding.

Not successful.

Here is why I don't post pictures of me wakeboarding.....

The faces....

...that I make....

.....while wakeboarding....

.....are just awful.

**When I was jumping I remember thinking, "I'm going to smile while I jump."  That didn't work out so well.

This is the worst picture though.

I mean look at it. Awful....

I think I'll just stick with pose and smile pictures on the boat!!

freedom

Happy 4th of July!!

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Hope you had a fun filled day with family and friends!!

We went to our church's July 4th celebration service this morning.  We celebrated our country's freedom, and we also celebrated 26 people's freedom in Christ!!  There were 26 baptisms this morning.  As our pastor was baptizing them, I remembered that I was baptized on July 4th 18  years ago!!

After church we ate some burger's and fries at Charley's with The Hoopers.  It just felt right to eat some good ole American food!! The burgers weren't bad, but we probably won't be venturing there anytime soon!  

After lunch we took a quick spin at the lake with my family this afternoon.

We didn't stay at the lake too long because it was too windy and there were too many people there.  All that made for very choppy water, which is not good for wake boarding.  Thank goodness we live close to the lake because we can go back on a week night and get nice smooth water when no one is there!!

We are enjoying a relaxing evening at home tonight.  We are having steaks, sweet potato fries, and salad for dinner and some cocoa pie for dessert.  We have a full disk of ER episodes to watch and Friday Night Lights on Instant Streaming if have time!!

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How did you spend your July 4th??

holiday weekend

We started our holiday weekend by watching some Friday Night Lights on Instantly Streamed Netflix last night.  Matt has been watching the show since it began, but I had never seen an episode until last night.  I'm definitely hooked though, it's a great show!! We are almost half way through Season One.

This afternoon we headed to the lake to test out my Dad's (and brother's) new boat.  My Dad has had a boat for about 5 years now, but my brothers convinced my Dad to trade it in for a new wakeboard boat if they all three went in on it.  According to my brothers, it rides a whole lot better than our old boat.  Matt and I didn't wakeboard today but we are excited to try it out tomorrow!

{Ashley, Carson, & Ryan}

{Mom & Dad}

{Marissa & Drew}

Carson and Pops in their cool sunglasses!!

After a fun afternoon at the lake Carson was all tuckered out!!

After our lake trip, Ash and I hit CVS and scored a couple of deals, Matt and I watched a firework show right from our backyard and now we are watching more Friday Night Lights!!

Looking forward our July 4th service at church, a possible afternoon movie with the hubby, and lake time with the family tomorrow!! 

father's day 2010

Happy Father's Day to our Fathers.  We love you both!!

My Dad said his idea of a perfect Father's day would be for us all to go the lake then go eat pizza.  We honored his request and did just that!!

This was our first time to go out on the boat this summer, since it's been in the shop getting fixed.  

I'm so glad it's fixed because we love to wakeboard!!!

Matt

My little brother, Drew

My big brother, Ryan

I'm not posting any pictures of me wake-boarding, because I really need to work on the faces that I make while jumping across the wake.  They are just awful!! And I forgot to take pictures of my sister-in-law.  Sorry Ash!!

Carson loved watching his Mommy wakeboard.  He waved at her the whole time.  It was so cute!!

Carson's favorite thing to do on the boat though, is to help Pops drive!! 

He is such a happy camper when he is sitting in Pops lap "driving" the boat. 

Thanks Dad for taking us out on your day!!  I love you!!

Next Sunday we get to hang out with Matt's family to celebrate Father's Day and Alisa's birthday!!

our family trip to lake greeson

My whole family packed up our stuff for the weekend and headed to the teeny tiny city of Daisy, Arkansas.

The only thing to do in Daisy, Arkansas is to spend time on Lake Greeson. My Dad brought his boat and we spend a long weekend on Lake Greeson.

Here are the top ten highlights of our trip.

{in no particular order}

**The last 5 will get their own post, so be sure to click on the link to get to whole story.

10. Watching Carson drive the boat.

He was only happy if he was sitting in the driver's lap.

9. Chilling in the hot tub after wakeboarding each day.

We got so sore from wakeboarding, so this felt so good on our muscles.

8. Kicking the guy's butts in Rummy
They said that I cheated, but I know in my heart that I didn't. They were just jealous at how good I was.

7. Having to tow the boat on the last day because it wouldn't start.

Luckily this happened on the last day, so we didn't really miss any time on the lake.

6. Taking TONS pictures with my new DSLR camera and lots of videos with Mom's video camera.

I took 345 pictures, to be exact. As soon as I get the videos loaded onto my computer I will work on editing a video of some really great crashes we had on the lake!! I'll be sure to post it!!

5. Watching the guys jump off a cliff.

You can go here to see the pictures of all of the guys take a leap of faith.

4. Spending time with my whole family.

You can go here to see lots of pictures of our family from the trip.

3. Wakeboarding

This is what we went to Arkansas for. The water on Lake Greeson is amazing because there are mountains surrounding the lake. It is so beautiful!! You can go here to see the good and the bad side of wakeboarding.

2. Pulling up a surprise with our anchor.

We anchored the boat down to swim for a while, and when we tried to pull it up we pulled up a surprise. You can read all about it here.

1. Having a drunk stranger spend the night in our cabin.

I'm not even going to try to give a short explanation to this story. You'll have to go here to read all about our uninvited visitor.