Lake Fun

Just an FYI this is a pretty LONG post.

This week was our vacation. We had such a good time. We left town about 7:30 Sunday night and headed to Lake Norfork. We packed coloring books, crayons, & movies (on the iPod) for Jayci to be entertained on our 3-4 hour journey. We ended up arriving right about 11:00 and even though Jayci was still awake she did really good the whole trip. Toward the end she started whinning about her bottom hurting; honestly, mine hurt too.

So at the lake we joined my mom, her boyfriend Greg, Greg's daughter Allie, Greg's brother Jeff, Jeff's son Joe and his wife Nicole. Then Monday morning Greg's oldest daughter Ashley came with 3 of her friends. Needless to say we had a pretty big group.

Anyway, Sunday night was a late one because after the long drive Jayci was just excited to be there she had some energy to burn. So we went to bed late and got up bright & early Monday morning (8:00). We took the morning pretty easy and I cooked breakfast for everyone. That was definitly a new experience for me. I've never cooked for that many people. One lessoned learned: don't ask everyone how they like there eggs just scrammble them. They will either eat them or not. Either way is ok.

Around noon we loaded up and went on the boats (Jeff & Gregg's). Here we are on Greg's Boat.
Jayci liked the boat ok but she really was more concerned about swimming. She was funny the first time we anchored out and just swam in the middle of the lake. She was a little nervous but liked it a lot.



Jayci swimming with Ashley and her friends! Needless to say Jayci recieved a lot of attention this last week!!! It was really great to have so many people to play with her and actually want to! Ha

I am so glad she is getting used to her life jacket. The very first time I made her wear it, in the pool, she hated it. I was afraid that she would just fuss about it the whole time but she didn't complain one time. After stopping for a bit we went and caught up with Jeff & everyone on his boat. We found a beach to pull up on and eat lunch and swim. This was all great and fun until...

...It started Thundering & Lightening!!

Ok so it wasn't exactly right over us but it did start raining. Which when your already wet it not a big deal. Unless it's lightening. So Gregg had the idea of leaving where we were and trying to go around the storm. Yeah, so that idea didn't work! So we end up heading back to the docks and end up right in the middle of the storm. It's like raining really hard so Greg can't see very well but can't slow down because we will get pounded. Oh yes did I mention it was hailing! During all this me, Jayci, Mom, and Allie end up huddled in the floor of the boat under the dash board singing whatever song we could think of to make Jayci laugh so she wouldn't freak. We started out singing Jesus loves me and apparently that wasn't funny enough. The next songs we sung were Shes a Brick...House, Baby got Back, and Apple Bottom Jeans. Apparently in a crisis Jayci just needs a little rap to make her happy. Ha! Anyway we got back to the dock safely and just in time for the sun to peek through. It was all a little scary but a memory that will last a long time.


This is Jeff after a long day!!!

Monday evening we all just took it easy. Jay & I went to Wal-Mart, Jayci took a 3 hour nap with my mom, and everyone else just hung out.

Tuesday we woke up fairly early, ate breakfast and loaded up to go back out on the boat. Jay and I decided to cliff jump. I used to do this all the time growing up but for some reason getting older and having a child changes your prospective on doing dangerous thing. (At least for me it does.) Anyway, I jumped once and it was really scary but fun. Somebody got a picture but I don't have it yet so I will have to come back and add it.

After this Jayci decided to be brave and try out a little tubbing. She LOVED it! Of course I rode with her and we went pretty slow but we had a lot of fun. While tubbing we saw this float called a bannana split that you hook up and pull with the boat. Gregg asked the owners if we could borrow it and they let us. Jayci lasted about 5 minutes on this and was out! It was great.
Jayci & I on the tube

Jayci passed out on the bannana


We headed in soon after that to cook dinner and just hang out.

Wednesday~ half way through our week. At this point everyone is a little tired and wears out easily. We got out on the water around noon and Jayci lasted about four hours before having a complete melt down. Which for a 3 year old is really good. So Jay, Jayci, Allie, & I went back to the house for a nap. Needless to say Jayci was asleep before we even got back to the dock.

After a 3 hour nap we woke up just in time for everyone else to be back from boating. We cooked dinner, hung out some, then Jay, Jayci, Allie, & I went for a late night boat ride. It was really fun and Jayci enjoyed it a lot. She couldn't see the waves clearly so she kept yelling "waves where are you."

This is Allie...Jayci's best friend for the week. Thank you Allie for being so great with Jayci. She has even asked a few times since we have been home "Where's Allie?" I swear that is all we heard all week from her. HA!


This may have been the same night that I got some pictures of Jayci playing in the bubbles. I'm not sure...the week kind of runs together.


Thursday~ I don't think anything exciting happened. We went back out on the boat, swam, grilled dinner, ate, and went to bed

Friday~ Greg's oldest daughter, Ashley, and her friends left to go back home. Jay, my mom, Gregg, Jayci, Allie, Jeff, and I all went to this place called "The Zone" that is in Mtn. Home. We played video games and rode Go Karts. Even Jayci rode a Go-Kart. I don't have a picture of this but she LOVED it.

After some play time we went to dinner at El Chico's then back to the house to change to do one last evening of boating. I would say we got out on the boat about 6:30 and the plan was just to do a little tubing and swimming and be back on land about 9 or so... Until the guys decided they wanted to cross the Arkansas/Missouri border via boat. We found it alright! Ended up about 4 miles into Missouri. How do we know that we were in Missouri? Good question. Somebody finally thought about my phone and the Map application it has on it. So we confirmed it by the little blue dot that shows up on the screen showing you exactly where you are.

This little blue dot also became very handy on the way back to the dock. The map will also show what part is water and what part is land. By the time we headed back to the dock it was dark so we used the blue dot to guide us and make sure we were in the middle of the lake. Obviously we also used lights and such but the dot also have us a bit of extra comfort and allowed for us to get home way earlier than we probably would have without it. Isn't modern technology great?!?

OK well that was our week! We had such a great time. It was hard having to come back home. I may post again today or tomorrow on the rest of our weekend. I am really going to try to get better at posting more often. I need a way to keep up with all the silly things Jayci does or says! We'll see how that goes!?!

~ Kristen