Vacation to Deep Creek Lake, MD!

About two weeks ago, we got back from our second summer vacation. We stayed in a lake house in Deep Creek Lake, MD. It was a privately owned house with a private pool and hot tub, but was in a community, so it had some nice amenities like free par-3 golf, free mini golf with your own putter, and a catch and release pond. We went in the middle of August but the weather was very chilly the week we were there. The highest it got was 78 and that was only one day. Most of the days were in the 60s. Brrrr! I actually only got in the pool one time the entire week!

 

We went on vacation with Seth's parents, and both brothers and their families. There were ten kids under eight-years-old, for a total of 18 people! The house was perfect, though. There were six bedrooms, and we seemed to have plenty of space. Carter slept on the floor of our room on an air mattress and Addison slept in the closet. Ha!  



 

The house - called Midnight Dip

 

 

The gorgeous living room, viewed from the loft up above (which served as the main post for the kids in the nerf gun wars!) :)

 

 

On a hike to explore the trail behind the house. We stopped for a quick photo op.

 

 

There was a nice fire pit out back, so we definitely had to make s'mores!!

 

 

Oma celebrated her birthday while we were there. I made chocolate cake with peanut butter icing!

 

This day (I think), we went to the movies. Seth stayed back with Addison but I took Carter to his first movie. We saw Planes. It was pretty good and he did really well sitting still!

 

 

 

We also took a day to go to Swallow Falls State Park to do some hiking. It was super pretty but it passed some INTENSE rapids which had us all watching the kids like hawks. It had rained a lot recently so the falls and rapids were much more intense than normal.

 

 

 

Carter was Opa's boy on the hike.

 

That afternoon, we did family pictures. Oma purchased shirts for each of the grandkids that had their name and age on it. It was a cool way to show the diversity in the grandkids (though there sure are a lot of threes!) :)

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty much the only photo of the grandkids with Oma and Opa that was useable. With that many kids, someone was always unhappy. There came a point where it almost became humorous (or maybe because if you didn't laugh, you'd cry?? Hmm.).

 

 

 

This would be the view from the ice cream shop. Insane, right? There was a delicious creamery just a few miles away, so we had to try it!

 

 

We also did a pontoon boat tour. I've got to be honest--this one had me worried. My kids HATE life jackets. Carter did okay with the life jacket but does get motion sick so I was watching him out of the corner of my eye the entire time. I kept him distracted as much as I could. Addison wasn't a fan of the life jacket, as I suspected. We pretty much kept her hands full with a snack at all times so she wasn't attempting to rip it off.

 

 

 

 

On one of the last days, we checked out the Deep Creek Lake State Park discovery center. There were life animals (like turtles and stuff) and a class about aquatic life in the lake.

 

 

This is Carter looking in the aquascope at what's in the lake. He didn't see much, I'm told. :)

 

 

On Saturday, there was a local airplane, antique car, and EMS vehicle fair at a local county airport. We took the kids to it and they enjoyed going from plane to plane checking things out.

 

Oh! And one of the days, we went on a mountain coaster. Basically, it's a single or double rider coaster that goes all the way to the top of the mountain and then you come down on tracks just like a coaster. You can brake if you want or fully accelerate. Carter rode with me and Seth rode alone. We all did the "full acceleration" method and it was a BLAST! Carter loved it. I don't have any pictures except one cell phone picture because cameras and phones had to stay secured during the ride.

 

We had such a great time on the trip. We actually did get to relax a decent amount, too, which I wasn't so sure would happen. Seth got to play golf with Matt a few times, fish with Carter, we played games, went out for dinner, found a dynamite coffee shop, went shopping, and more!

Life Lately.

I wish I had time to blog more, but life has been hectic. I have another entire vacation to blog about, plus who knows what else in between?!

I thought I'd do some "life updates" about what's up with us. I love looking back on these things down the road and remembering what life was like day-to-day and what our kids were doing.

1. Carter is growing up so insanely fast. He literally talks your ear off and goes from sun (son? ha) up to sun down, with a two-hour nap in between (thank you, Jesus!). He is losing so much of that cute baby-talk, which is good and bad at the same time. What was once "lellow" is now yellow, "ket-ku" is now clearly ketchup, and so on. BUT, one thing remains: chocolate chips are STILL "rocklate chips" and popsicles are still "pop-ick-els." The movie "Madagascar" is pronounced "out-of-gas-car" to little man. Precious. Oh, and he still calls anything stringy "ties." (think: hair, melted cheese, pulled pork, ribbons, etc.) He FREAKS if he gets a tie--in any of its definitions--in his mouth.

2. Addison is a teething monster. I mean that in the nicest sense of the word, but she is craaanky between 5 p.m. and generally 7:00 p.m. and has been crying out during the night and waking up freakishly early again. PRAYING those bad-boys come in soon or mommy and daddy might lose their ever-loving minds! (Sidenote: I'm pretty sure God makes babies so stinking cute between 12-18 months because they are terrors. Just sayin') :)

3. Seth is back to school so the insanity of every weekday morning has begun. But, he did quit his part-time job so we have FAMILY TIME AGAIN. It makes me incredibly happy.

4. I am majorly itching to re-do our kitchen and have gone on a full-fledge research mission to find something that is both cost-effective and nicer than what it is now (i.e. not super...sort of 1990s countertops). I will find a solution!!!!

5. It was four years ago this week that we found out we were pregnant with Carter. So crazy!

Family Vacation Re-Cap!

Well, we've been back from vacation for about two weeks and I am finally getting time to sit down and blog about it!

We spent a week in Massanutten, VA with my family. We had two separate condos (it was to be just one but a week or two before, my mom and dad booked a second one for them. For peace or space?? :) Anyway, the kids and the families stayed in the other...). 



The golf course right across from our condo. The guys golfed a lot that week, and I'm sure enjoyed a few breaks from the chaos!

While we were out for a walk, we saw the guys. The kids were all very excited to grab a quick ride on the golf carts!

There were tons of activities at the resort and we did many of them, but not NEARLY all. At nights, we mini golfed, went for ice cream, out for dinner a few nights, go-karting, and more.

We also went to Luray Caverns one day. We did the tour, had lunch, and checked out the museum and toy shop.

The resort has an awesome waterpark, which we hit up one day. I wasn't sure if Carter would love it or not, but he had SO MUCH FUN. He absolutely loved all the crazy slides and shocked me big time. He did everything he was allowed to do and was exhausted beyond measure when the day was over. Addison did okay, but wasn't able to do much (nor interested in much). We did a lot of holding her. After lunch, Seth took her back to nap and I stayed with Carter. Jason played with the boys which gave me sister, Ashley, dad, and I an opportunity to do some of the no-kids-allowed slides which were so much fun! Then, I took Carter back for a nap and Seth came back to hang with everyone. It worked out well for us. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures since I didn't want to risk my camera getting wet!

They had a lot of fun at the petting zoo!

Carter and Seth made tie-dyed shirts. He was so excited and it was cute to watch him make it!

We also went zip-lining, which was fun and...scary.

All in all, we did a lot of swimming, going for walks, golfing (for the guys), and exploring. We had a great time and actually got to relax a bit (a few times while the kids were napping, I even got to READ on the deck, take a nap, and go to the pool. Glorious!). Thanks, mom and dad!