Hanging at the Lake

Are we there yet?

So just to prepare those reading this...it will be a long one (for the long weekend).

We left last Friday and went to hang up at the lake house in Hot Springs with the James clan....well at least Joyce, Dennis, Rob, Noah and Luke. Melanie and Dude had to stay home in Oklahoma cause Dude was down with the sickness. This hanging at the lake house has become a tradition the past few years on Memorial Day weekend. Who would not enjoy a peaceful house overlooking a lake with wonderful people and weather, a mother-in-law that cooks like every meal and not just a simple meal but big, wonderful, tasty meals, a porch just ripe for rocking, drinking wine and good conversation. We stay unplugged pretty much the entire time we are there and it is nice. Unlike past years, it was a little too cold to go in the water, so no tubing, but we did take Miss Abby out on the lake and she seemed to be fine with it!

After we rode around on the lake, we went back and tried more finger foods. We got some Mum Mums which Jamie told us about because she used them with Alex. They are bigger than puffs so Abby is able to handle them a little better.

Abby seemed to enjoy having Luke and Noah around. She likes seeing other kids. She crawled all over the place and was pulling up like a champ.

One of the reasons we went was so we could participate in the Hot Springs Du for the Park. This is a 2 mile run, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run. Tracy, his dad and brother all participated last year. My goal was to beat the time Tracy had run last year, but alas I did not make it. I finished in about 1 hour 27 minutes. I will blame it partly on the weather (it rained during the first run and the bike) as well as a massive leg cramp that is still hurting right now! I came in 2nd in my division and at least finished. There is always next year. Tracy shaved 9 minutes off his time from last year and Dennis beat his time from last year too. Abby was there afterwards to cheer mom and dad on!

After our du, the boys participated in the kid version of it. It was shorter distances, but man can they compete! They both won medals in their divisions!

This was a wonderful weekend and am still recovering :)! One thing that happened was that Abby seems to really like Joyce now. Joyce was able to hold her and even watched her for a bit without Abby freaking out!