The gauntlet's been thrown!!! We haven't had a better time at the lake yet than we had this August! Our nephew and niece, Tommy and Kaylin, their friends, Kelly and Allison demonstrated how "lake living" should be done. Without question spending a week on the water with the 4 of them was the best age-reversal elixir on the market.
After the 12 hour drive we stopped off at Dadeville Foodland for the next morning's necessities, coffee, Nestle French Vanilla non-fat creamer, the latest Enquirer and of course BlueBird powdered donuts. The beginning of an established, tried and true routine for a perfect Campherren stay...well, that was the end of business as usual.
Day One First Jump squarely in the past- everyone seemed pruned up nicely by noon. We got up around 9 or 10, ate eggs & bacon, us girls went into "town" to get new boat stickers from the court house (gotta be legal), shop groceries and look around (it didn't take long!). The boys got the boats shuttled around and in the water, then we all laid around and read celebrity gossip mags on the dock and sun bathed.... until "wakeboard school" opened!
Pre-college Reading List
Tommy Wakebaords
Tommy HotDog
Tommy Off the Dock
Kaylin with Thumbs Up!
Since wakeboard lessons took us well into the late afternoon we have ton’s of photos (total attempts for all three girls was somewhere in the neighborhood of 60, the attempts are well documented!) Dinner on Night One- was at Oscars for fried everything... pickles, okra, catfish, hush puppies, etc. Allison is turning out to be the best tourist- she thinks Alabama is in another country- so she's taking tons of pictures!
Everyone has just 1 chigger bite and the start of a good tan- I think we're doing great so far! Wish the rest of you were here!!
Kelly and Tommy
Syd Tommy in Glastron
Day Two It's a beautiful morning! Everyone's still asleep-even though we all went to bed around 9 last night...sun & fun is soooo exhausting (ha ha!). Maybe the mid-afternoon Hurricane's played a part (we are now out of Rum) what a tragedy!! Great day on the lake yesterday... the kids probably think we don't eat often enough-oops...man, they are ALWAYS hungry!! Tonight we'll have a bonfire on the shoreline. The water is down 3 feet, so we've got some edge. Today we'll go hang out a Chimney Rock and we're thinking Mango Margaritas...?
Oh, one pic to the right is of Kaylin with the pretzel...So the weird thing was, we had 2 of 12 eggs that morning for breakfast that were double yolked, then this thing with the pretzels all stuck together and we're all wondering....what's next….crossing our fingers for something spectacular!
Kaylin and the Pretzel
Wade and Kelly
Tommy
Day Three Another wonderful afternoon on the lake yesterday and it went something like this... "you gotta sit back with your knees bent, wait for the rope, let it come to you, keep tucked up till you feel the board come out of the water then count 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000 and stand". I think we even dreamt those instructions! Nobody knew what to do after they stood up, so we had some really terrific crashes (see pics)! Guess Wade and I need to improve our training skills....Brett- we miss your ability in that area, but our patience and commitment was strong! Tubing was a huge success. Mango Margaritas fueled the celebration (can't remember if that was before or after the triumph-oh well !) The trip to Chimney Rock didn't go off as planned- the pontoon quit working- thankfully before we left out of Blue Creek- we drove it in reverse back home. We'll head over today in the fast boats, but the pontoon would have been a better ride. We did get the bonfire lit at 6, ate leftovers at about 7, and smores by 8, and in bed again by 9 or 10. Ahhhhh!
The rest of the photos below are in slide show format so just click on the first picture then hit the double arrow button (you may need to scroll down to see it) - then click close box in right corner and it will close out.
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Day Four Yesterday started off slow and dysfunctional (in a good way :) Sort of cloudy and looking like rain. If we weren't trying to plan what to do, then we were trying desperately to get started! Questions, questions! Do we need gas? Who's wakeboarding? In what order? Syd wakeboards, then Kelly, then Kaylin, then Allison, and Tommy with Uncle Wade on the Donzi... Who needs the wetsuit first and does anyone want gloves? Wade wants to try barefoot- and does! Who will drive who and who's the spotter? Should we do that before we get gas or after? How much gas do we have in this boat? Who knows what the mix of oil to gas ratio is? Who wants to go now? Should we do that before we go.... or after lunch?? Where are my sunglasses???? How about lunch at Chuck's Marina????? So, who's ready??????
Tommy Suits Up
Allison and Kaylin
JUMP...JUMP.....JUMP...JUMP!!!!!! Okay, we'll count to THREE. 1...2...3! JUMP! YEA!!!!! You guessed it... Chimney Rock!! We had the place to ourselves, heck, we've had the whole lake all to ourselves all week! What a treat not to dodge other boaters and worry about getting run over by mosqui-skidos! I go off Chimney Rockette (the absolutely smallest rock there, actually it was more of a pebble) Kaylin, Kelly and Allison jumped off the namesake, and Tommy went 3 feet higher than that. Wade kept the boats tethered and running in circles while everyone took their turns... he also graded the jumpers (just kidding!)
The afternoon was hot and sunny... we're living at the end of the dock on a 12x16 section of wood... 6 adults 2 dogs and whoever is visiting at the time. In and out of the water, on the boats and off. We dined at Niffers for dinner and played trivia- I think we could have won if we'd have gotten there in the beginning... Movies, Music, Sports and Science! We came back and Wade and I held onto the Foosball title of Guests vs. The House. Next was Twister- now THAT HURT, and when did the mat get so small? Next up was Pictionary- is Art still a subject in school???? My guess is that it's an elective....
Our last day- boo hooo!
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Last day... clean, eat, pack up, put the boats away, figure out which route to take home in the morning. Eat at Chucks Marina.
