Lake Catherine 8/13- 8/22/2010

When it came time to talk about our vacation this year, we just kept putting off that discussion, and before we knew it it was nearly August. Between softball, Gracie starting kindergarten, and being sure to give my daycare parents plenty of notice, that didn't leave much of a vacation to actually get away. So, we decided to plan a stay-cation. The only week we could set something up was the week that Gracie started school since she was starting on Friday. We decided to spend some time in Hot Springs since we live about 45 minutes from there. Lake Catherine State Park has a beautiful campground, and you are close enough to Hot Springs that you can still go out.


We LOVE camping, but for this little girl when comes time to go to bed she wants to go home. Jerred told her " this is your home, at the lake. When we are at the lake that is your room. So go to your room and go to sleep." LOL! She got in her bed and went to sleep. If only it was that easy at home!

Gracie spent the night with a friend Friday night, so mamou and Olivia brought her to the lake. We went horseback riding, and these girls loved it! Especially my little cowgirl!

Although, you see the massively giant horse in the back? This big guy scared her! His name is Big Foot, and he is the most gentle horse they have! He is the kid horse! His ears are as long as my hand!

We have some impatient cowgirls on our hands!

Taking a group picture of the girls and this horse gets closer and closer.............

To Jadyn's head. He was licking her helmet.

Gracie riding Ernie.

Olivia riding Pepsi.

Jerred and Jadyn got Big Foot. Jadyn was so mad

at her daddy, because she wanted to ride by herself.

"this is MY horse!

It was VERY hard to take pictures while riding. Especially since my horse wanted to try to rub my leg on EVERY tree we passed.

These geese (and a few ducks) came to our campsite every day at about the same time. We fed them some crackers and bread. Our last day I saw a sign that said "Do not feed the geese" Ooops!

We did a lot of this.

Just hanging out.

Cosmo went with us. He is a great traveling dog!

Who would have guessed a malshi would LOVE the water so much?! He got off his leash a few times and took off into the lake.
When I looked through the camera to look at all our pictures, there wasn't very many. I guess I spent more time relaxing then documenting our vacation. Oh well. It was nice.

The last weekend a bunch of family came up and we hung out. These three girls are best friends, no matter their age difference.

We did a lot of hanging out, kayaking, boating, fishing, swimming, and card playing. It was a great week, but I was so glad to be home! After living in the camper for a week my house felt huge to me. Since we made a couple of trips home during the week, our laundry wasn't that bad either!

I'm ready to go back though.

Open House August 16,2010

I am a bad, bad, bad blogger. It has been a long time since I updated this. So, here goes.

Gracie's kindergarten open house. Seeing her class for the first time and meeting some of her class mates. This girl does not do change and new situations well. Playing softball has helped her a lot with this, but you can just see how nervous she is.

We found her spot at the table.

Jadyn on the other hand was very excited about kindergarten. She was all over the place checking stuff out. I think the look on Gracie's face about sums up her feelings about kindergarten.

Gracie's teacher, Mrs. Rosnermanz, was also Jerred's teacher in the second grade.

Clinging to my leg.................

We had Gracie introduce herself to some of the people in her class. The little girl at the same table as her decided before we even left that they were going to be best friends. One little girl shares her birthday, and she just thought that was so neat.

We HAD to look for one of her softball buddies before we could leave!

Open house was during our week of "stay"cation. We spent the week at Lake Catherine, and we left right after open house to head back to the lake!