Ink's Lake

We (my parents, Russ, Campbell, and I, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew, and brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece) spent a long weekend at the MOST awesome house on Ink's Lake this summer. A high school friend of my mom's owns this house (as well as the one we stayed at in Tahoe several years ago). My mom did not adequately prepare us for how awesome this house was. If you will notice, I listed all those people and even Campbell had her own room and bathroom!

View of house from lake

Bar/Kitchen

We rather enjoyed all of the items around the house, which of course we had been instructed not to touch. The man that owns the house is quite the hunter. There is a full-sized lion in the living room, standing over its prey (antelope?). Campbell barked at the lion all weekend.

Pole Vaulting with this very large pillow



Not only was the house amazing, but of course we had a great time. We spent a lot of time out on the boat.

Some people are more successful "tubers" than others.
I skied for the first time! I felt very accomplished.
Lots of pool time.

And fishing

And lounging

And Jake got his annual "vacation haircut" from MiMi (which he is never, ever happy about).

Somebody's looking a little white trash. Too much time on the lake, perhaps?

Thanks Mom and Dad! We LOVED our time at Ink's Lake!

Remembering a Vacation Past

I have officially decided to close down my MySpace account. Seeing as how I haven't logged on in about six months and MySpace is SO three years ago, I figure it's time.

My parents took us, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew to Tahoe in 2006. This slide show has made its home on my MySpace page since then. Enjoy, as I organize the insane amount of pictures for a post about our family vaca to Ink's Lake two weekends ago!

Campbell's First Birthday Party

Seriously, almost two months later I am writing this post.

It might have taken us that long to recover.

We had Campbell's party on Saturday, May 16th, two days after her actual birthday. We had planned on having our friends, family, and church family for an indoor/outdoor feast of hamburgers, hot dogs, and cupcakes. Pretty simple, right? I should have known that the details are just too important to me...I was kind of a wreck for a few weeks beforehand! I have to say I had fun though. Special thanks to my mom, Susan, Connie, and my sister for helping with food and preparations.

Russ and I were both amazed at how many came to celebrate our little girl's first year of life with us. It is a blessing to have people that love us and our child, and the experience of community we have started to live here in Houston has been an answer to many of our prayers.

It started raining about forty-five minutes into the party, so everything moved inside. Our house can hold some people...but 50-75 people is pushing it! At the end of the night, Russ and I felt like it had been our wedding again - I never sat down, I didn't eat anything, and I only had two minute conversations with all of the guests!

Campbell wore the most gorgeous dress, created by her GiGi. Susan and I had fun designing the dress and she looked so adorable in it. She partied so hard she tore the dress apart by the end of the night!

She was very tentative about the cupcake.

My sweet one year-old.