I'm not even going to try to put these in order, because we basically did the same thing all week: swim, eat, swim, eat, swim, eat. It was a great week!!
My parents rented a fantastic house in Bumpass, VA (we had a great time with that name on the group text) and all my sisters & their families joined up for a week together. We had SO much fun. We loved being right on the lake (one morning I went for a run and it was super hot muggy VA weather so when I finished my run I just ran past the house, kicked my shoes off on the dock, and dove straight off the end of the dock and swam around for twenty minutes--HEAVEN).
Jordan rented a jet ski for the week and then Neil rented a ski boat for one day and we had sooooo much fun!! We also had an amazing waterslide that kept the kids (and adults busy), we had our own private beach that was utter and absolute perfection for hanging out watching kids swim (seriously I cannot even emphasize how amazing this was), and then there was some seriously crazy catch & release fishing that happened every so often (crazy because somehow most of the fish that I heard about seemed to have been hooked through the eye, gross).
Lots of fun around the fire pit in the evenings--I think this night we stayed up forever playing Werewolf.
So many fun jet ski trips; Nathan still regularly talks about going to get gas on the jet ski with Jordan & Evelyn & Jordan buying the kids giant ice cream cones at the dock.
We had our own private boathouse that was the perfect shady spot to read or nap, always accompanied by Caleb's amazing Spotify playlist from the boathouse kitchen.
Brothers-in-law chilling (Neil looks like a happy grandpa in this pic, I don't know why)
Abs driving the ski boat--woohoo!
And a lot of happy little faces ready to go tubing!
Jordan out on the waterskis
Nate just chilling in his pjs one morning before breakfast
And Matthew giving my dad and Iris a kind of surprising welcome back to shore--yikes!
This was our cute little beach--we loved how the water was instantly about a foot deep so it was really fun for the littlest kids to play right in front of the chairs without heading out into deeper water.
Isaac ready to go--this might be before the time that I flipped him (Neil was taunting my boat-driving by standing up on the tube and my competitive instincts completely swamped my parental instincts)
We loved roasting hot dogs for lunch in our swimsuits!!
One of the big floaty things--we had so much fun with these!!
Platers ready for an adventure!
Elise was training for a half-marathon, so one morning the two of us drove over to a nearby state park and ran ten miles on the trails. It was a pretty tough run with lots of hilly rolling terrain over roots and rocks--I was so proud of her!!
Nathan ready to set sail--love this pic so much!
Paxton and Iris
All the kids gathered around Grandpa because he is making ENDLESS GAUFFRES
Ruth grabbed my phone while I was out on the tube and I came back to about 50 selfies, haha
Nathan patiently waiting for a catfish to bite (you can just see the end of the slide in this pic)
Climbing back up from the slide--so so so fun!
We had a blast with all the kayaks and paddleboards--such a good time.
At one point someone made some Scrabble art with all the last names (I think this was before Mary Beth's now-wife got there, so we are missing her! They came a little later in the week.)
Apparently I don't have many pics of the house, but it was AMAZING.
Seriously--such a great house! You can sort of see the screened-in porch in this shot, which was a very popular hang-out zone.
More Ruth selfies--this was not long after chemo & radiation wound up, and it was so good to see Ruth smiling.
Screened porch chill time!!
Loved having that firepit so close--it was the perfect positioning between the house and the lake.
Selfie I took one morning walking down to the beach
I love Matthew's expression in this one--so happy to be with Grandpa!
This pic is from the very beginning of the trip when everyone was sending selfies of themselves en route and it just made me SO happy to see all family starting out and knowing that we would be together in a few short hours!
Such a dreamy trip!
And I could really use a gauffre right now--as I'm typing this I realize that I have zero pictures of the food (which is pretty shocking given that the food was AMAZING; one of my favorite parts about these reunions is only worrying about meals for one day and then just relaxing and enjoying all the delicious food on the other days) and hardly any of anyone other than my own kids, but it was seriously just such a great chill week of hanging out and enjoying my parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, and nieces/nephews/kids (oh did i mention there was also a playroom in the house and a theater?).
We're ready to go back!!
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