Summersville Lake

We made or first trip to Summersville Lake.  We met up with Dale, Janet and Logan.  The drive was less than 4 hours for both families.  It was such a beautiful lake!  The water was so clean and clear and we were surrounded by rocky cliffs.  We had beautiful weather.  Duane, the girls and I stayed in a Chalet for two nights.  It was a secluded little place in the woods.  We loved it!  The girls were thrilled to have a loft all to their selves.  There was a hot tub and a fire pit in the back.  To top it off we were two minutes from the campground where Dale, Janet and Logan were staying.  They had a great set up too.  They were able to anchor their boat in a cove right over the hill from their camp sight.  The kids had fun swimming in the cove in between trips out on the boat.  We were having such a great time, we decided to pitch our tent on Dale and Janet's camp site for one more night.  We have not had great luck with tent camping but I was willing to risk it.  It did rain but luckily it stopped right when the tent started leaking.  There were lots of firsts on this trip.  Madison, Molly and Logan all learned how to knee board and Mallory went tubing for the first time.  Madison made her daddy so proud when she finally came up on two skies.  She was tired and frustrated, but she didn't give up.  She learns new things a lot like her mother.  Once she turns the frustration into determination, she finally meets success.  Duane was in the water helping hold her skies still and after a few tries, she popped right up!  We spent a lot of time eating good food and doing lots of floating.  We spent a little time at the beach.  The kids made good use of their snorkel gear.  We spent an afternoon at the cliffs.  There was a smaller edge that Madison, Molly and Logan were comfortable jumping off of with Dale and Duane.  There was another really high cliff that Duane and Madison jumped off of.  I second guessed letting her do it the second she jumped.  But as soon as she hit the water she was asking to do it again.  Crazy girl!  It was the perfect end of summer trip.  I was floating in a tube with my eyes closed, feeling the sun beating down on me thinking, in a few weeks school is going to start and life will be crazy.  I'm going to remember this moment for a long time.  Can't wait to float in that tube on Summersville Lake again next summer!   

OBX

Every year we get more and more excited for our trip to the beach.  As always we had a wonderful week!  The entire Scott family made it this year along with Aunt Susan, Aunt Cindy and Sara.  The girls had lots of attention.  We are finally at the point in our lives where vacation actually feels like a vacation.  The girls are getting more and more independent all the time and they are such good swimmers.  Mallory made huge strides with her swimming abilities this summer.  So Duane and I can actually sit back and relax a little.  I miss when the girls were babies, but I don't miss digging sand out of diapers and tiny sand covered hands that always seemed to make their way into their mouth.  Molly was even more confident in the ocean.  She loved tubing.  That's what she and Madison and Logan spend 90% of their ocean time doing.  Mallory was warming up to the waves, but she was partial to playing in the sand.  Duane and I were able to take some walks alone together.  We walked up to the beach house where Grandma and Grandpa Scott and Uncle Brian and his family were staying and visited.  Later in the week we spent a day there.  We even had an entire night to ourselves thanks to Aunt Susan, Aunt Cindy and Sara.  The weather was beautiful.  On the last afternoon a pretty wild storm rolled in.  It cut our beach time short but was an awesome sight to see.  We were all sad to leave.  I had the beach blues for a while after we left.  A week just isn't enough.  But we have the memories to last us until we make new ones next summer at our home away from home.