Back down to TN!

The joy of having two sets of parents living in the same place is that we get to go twice as often! We headed back down to TN at the end of the summer to spend a week with Paul's side of the family.
This time we brought Belle with us, which made the car pretty full!  Everyone did great though - these kids are champs in the car!

We made our usual breakfast stop and found a minion (or a fire hydrant) that matched Abbey!  She wanted a picture...

We got to TN and immediately began to relax, which for Matthew, meant swinging with Mama Kay on the dock.

Ben and Abbey enjoyed a relaxing time in this fun new tube!

And Daddy got down to fishing off the dock.  This time he got to teach Matthew about it too!

And dipping Matthew into the water for a little refreshment too.

Belle was in her happy place swimming in the lake chasing balls.  She did have quite an incident though.  A fishing line with some chicken liver bait on it was left out on the dock.  Well, she ate the bait and got the fish hook stuck in her throat.  Paul took her to the emergency vet, where she had to get it removed and spend the night in recovery.  Poor thing was pretty groggy the next day, but she was fine after that.  Oh Belle!

Mama Kay and Papa set up a mini pool on the porch for Matthew to play in too.  He really enjoyed splashing around in there.

And drinking from the hose.

More swinging!

Aunt Domi and family were there too!  We borrowed Madgie and Patch's jet skis and Aunt Domi took everyone out for a spin.

The boat is always a good place for a quick nap!

Juliette got into the fishing too - look at her big catch!

We also went to Ft. Loudon and toured around it.  We had never been before and it was really interesting.  The kids got into character while there too.

Matthew displaying his adorable curls in the southern humidity.

And we celebrated Juliette's upcoming birthday with a Texas Sheet Cake from Madgie.

After about a 5 year break, I got back up on water skis, but found I had become more scared and couldn't seem to stay up into the turns.  Oh well.  At least I popped up right away each time!

And there was lots of good cousin time!  One of their favorite activities each time is making boats out of logs, twigs, etc.  Abbey and Caroline look ready to set theirs for sail.

Juliette's boat!  She decorated hers with stickers to make it pretty.

Uncle Brandon helped Juliette get hers in the water.

Matthew enjoyed the boat rides too.  Of course Abbey was happy to sit and hold him while the boat was moving.

He even got to drive the boat with Papa!

And on our last day, we just had some silly fun in the water.  

Another fantastic trip to TN.  Thank you Mama Kay and Papa for all the fun!!