summer catch-up #5

After three respective summers of being invited and never having our schedules work out right, etc. we finally made it out on the lake with the Bradshaws! We all had so much fun that I am now adding a boat to my future dream life. Seven kids, three adults and the boys have talked about it so much that I have shamelessly asked them to invite us again sometime soon.



Speeding across the lake. I love how happy Bubba looks in this picture. I don't think I have ever been able to capture that face on film before.


Jared found a quiet spot on the lake and jumped right off the side. All the kids followed immediately. Bubba also jumped right in with no prompting and only the slightest hesitation. For a kid who won't even leave my side at the water park, this felt huge and he got big cheers from all of us!


Sis took over the wheel for awhile


No swimming picture is complete without Junior staging a picture pretending like he is drowning or being eaten by a lake monster (I can't remember which this was).


Atta boy, Gabe!


Junior taking his turn in the belly flopping contest (ouch).


Gabe and Gracey


Britny took Sis for a swim



Coaxing the babies in (not that it took much...)





Warming up!


Brit drove the boat while Jared took each of the kids for a turn on the wakeboard.


Jared and William (4)


Jared and Gracey (almost 2)


Jared and Josh (7 yrs. A little later, Josh practiced standing on his own on the wakeboard. Junior thinks it will be his turn to do it alone next time. We'll see...)


Jared and Junior (who hasn't stopped talking about how cool 'surfing' was.) Bubba's bravery didn't extend to wake boarding this time. He says he will do it when he is 10.

Major props to Jared, who wore out his left arm taking all the kids for rides. We had so much fun! Next time, I may try to dig deep and find my waterskiing self from the high school days and see if I've still got it. At the very least, it doesn't take much skill to ride on the tube :-) For anyone who thinks I included an excessive amount of pictures with this post, I would like you to know that my camera died right after getting the pictures of Junior wake boarding, or it would be much worse. Just sayin'

Thanks Bradshaws!! As always, you rock.