nothing better than family

we have a really close family.  and since we've moved, it has been hard for us to be so far away.  thankfully, we had a family reunion at my grandparents' lake house in georgia over the fourth.  even though some of our family could not make it (we miss you guys!), we were happy to get together with the ones who came.  my mom and steve, melissa and matt, and all of my mom's side attended the reunion.  we arrived a few days before and stayed a few days following the get together.  it was great fun!

we pretty much played on the lake every day we were there.  my grandparents' house is literally 100 yards from the water, so we took advantage.  we had wonderful company and great food (thanks to grandma!).

oakley was so brave.  he rode on a sea doo with me and brian (though, he enjoyed it more with brian because he went faster than i did!), rode on the float behind the boat (always telling us to go faster, the little daredevil!), and jumped off the end of the dock.  he took solid 3 hour naps every day and slept until 10 a couple of days.  i think we wore him out, but he loved it and asked to either, "go fishin'" or "go on pa's boat" immediately when he woke up.  i'm so glad he loves the water like we do.

brian got a new fishing pole with some of his birthday money and broke it in pretty quickly.  the first time he used it, he caught a few catfish.  one of them weighed over 4lb.  it was grossly huge.  i was told it took almost 10 minutes to reel it in.  he was pretty excited!  my grandpa cleaned the fish and we now have a package of fillets in our freezer. :)

we had a little birthday party for oakley while we were in ga.  he is really into "sheens" (machines) right now--particularly construction machines, so i made him a "dirt" cake that was construction themed.  it turned out pretty cute.  oakley loved it and it was a hit with all of the family members.  they liked it so much, my grandma requested another one for the reunion. :)  oakley was showered with birthday presents and really enjoyed all of the attention.  we are so thankful to have such a loving family!

we had a monumental moment occur while visiting.  for the first time in my life (28 years!), my grandma made dinner and we had no leftovers.  this has never happened.  we actually ended up pulling out leftover porkchops from the fridge for the still-hungry boys in the family.  of course, grandma was a little sad that she didn't make "enough" but we were ok with it because there was not much room in the fridge for leftovers, anyway.  i think it just means she makes a mean chicken pie!  oakley even had three helpings!

i decided to make a little slideshow of the pictures from the vacation because there were just too many that turned out great...enjoy! (notice the one toward the end documenting the empty dinner table)