Friday night, we went to what has become our typical Friday night hangout, Pickwick Pizza. It was fun as usual. The Regis Family went with us. As Eric says, "We came in to the Holiday Weekend a little HOT"!
Saturday, we let the kids sleep in and took our time getting ready to go out on the Lake. We knew it would be crowded and we didn't want to wear them out before camp, so we just took our time. As they get older and sleep later, it is nice to not rush out to the Lake at the crack of dawn. When we got to the boat, we realized that Oney didn't have on his swimsuit (if you have three kids you know how easily something like this can happen-if you don't have kids I am sure you are wondering how I could not have noticed my son didn't have on his swimsuit). Judson and Oney ran back to the house and the girls and I pulled the boat around to pick them up at the boat ramp. As I pulled up to the ramp, I put the boat in reverse. IT KEPT GOING FORWARD...I adjusted the throttle again and tried to put it in reverse...IT KEPT GOING FORWARD...my husband and son were pushing on the front of the boat at this point and I FROZE! Luckily Judson was calm enough to yell "kill the engine" and I did...otherwise I would have ended up on the concrete. WHEW...LUCKY!!! Ally was on the SeaDoo and she towed us back around to our slip. We called Marine Sales and they were there to fix it within a couple of hours! There were just two loose screws...a simple fix that could have caused a major accident...THANK YOU GOD! We went out on the Regis's boat until ours was repaired. We came in early to get ready to go to the Howard's, John and Laura's, for their annual 4th of July Party. We went by boat, the Williams pontoon. Judson was our Captain on the way there and Brad on the way back. It was so smooth and nice! The fireworks were really good this year. We had a great time!
Jay and Judson both has on Red shirts! And so did Oney and Jo!
These are the Fireworks at Grand Harbor. Ally and Abby had on their red, white and blue plaid shirts. They looked so cute and old!
Max and Ashley
The Couples and The Girls
Sunday, we slept as late as we could. Then we went to eat lunch, just our family of five, at the Pickwick Deli. It is a new place and we loved it! It has a neat 50's diner atmosphere, very clean, good service and the food was good! After lunch, we came back to the house and loaded the car for camp. I made homemade ice cream for the first time EVER! Can you believe that Judson and I got an ice cream freezer for a wedding gift 16 years ago...we still had it in the box and it had never been used? Well it works GREAT! I made Mr. Leon Roane's recipe, the chocolate flavor. It was delicious! I could barely scoop it out of the container before the kids attacked me...mainly Ally of course! The Regis Family came by for a bowl and off to camp we went! I forgot to take a single picture when we dropped them off...oops!
We drove back to Pickwick, with Oney in tow and headed to the Lake to watch the sunset. We swung by and picked up Eric and Lori and went to Panther Cove. There was hardly anyone there. We just swam and watched the sunset. It was really nice and Oney was really good. We ended up at Ginny and Pop's for dinner Sunday night. It was delicious-beef tenderloin-one of our family's favorites. It was a little weird though because the girls were all missing-Britt was at the beach and Ally and Abby at camp. When we left, we handed Oney over to Ginny for the week! Yep...NO KIDS for a WEEK! What in the world would we do all week???
Monday, we slept late...nice! We worked around the house and got things back in order a little bit. Then we packed up and headed out for what turned out to be a REALLY weird somber day. We picked up a friend of Eric and Lori's, Austin, at Grand Harbor and headed to Panther Cove again. As Judson dropped his anchor, he said "we are going to get wet today". "I checked the radar and we have a tiny little cell coming around 2:00. We are just going to ride it out today". We didn't think twice about what he said at the time. This is Austin.
We setup our tiny little "floatilla" and jumped in the water to cool off and relax. Judson got out the lifejackets, etc just in case. All of a sudden the sky turned dark and the strongest winds EVER came out of nowhere. It never rained believe it or not. We were all still in the water when the boats started drifting away from us pretty fast (we were anchored). We scrambled to get in our boats. All of a sudden about 3/4ths of the boats in Panther, took off like they were going to put out a fire. But, they all came to a screeching halt when they reached the channel. They all just stopped...the waves were huge (5-6 feet tall) and it was white capping! Judson turned on our marine radio to see if there was something we needed to know about and thats when the day took a turn. There was all kinds of chatter on the radio. There was a capsized boat at the mouth of Panther Cove! We pulled out the binoculars and watched the whole thing unfold. It was so chilling to hear it all on the radio...searching for the captain, accounting for the passengers, trying to keep the boat from sinking, warning all boats to stay out of the channel. Then we hear another boat has capsized in Yellow Creek and we hear the same chatter until we finally hear that all of the people have been accounted for and are safe! Boy did Judson make the right call that day!
This is the boat that was overcome with water near Panther Cove.
This is the boat that was near Yellow Creek.
We didn't see this boat, looks like a Mastercraft, until we were on our way in for the day!
Well, the wind storm came and went in a matter of minutes. Then, we owned Panther. There were our two boats and four others the rest of the day! I do not EVER remember Panther looking like that on a Holiday! It was weird but nice. We had a fun afternoon...
Me and Jud
Lori and Dion or "Dijon" as Judson named her
Eric and Jeff
Me Napping...my goal is to take a NAP everyday while the kids are gone!
I woke up from my nap to a phone call that Mee-Maw had had another stroke...I told Ginny to leave Oney and go on home and we would figure out a plan. Really??? Could my adult only week be ending after only one day??? Oney was swimming at Joseph's. I called Jay and told him we would pick him up on our way in to the house. My sweet sister texted and offered to keep Oney for the night. I arranged to drop him off there on our way to dinner. After the crazy day, we all voted to skip the Fireworks at the Dam this year and go out to eat dinner instead at Freddy T's. We parted ways and headed in to get dressed. In the meantime, I got a call from Mom and hear great news that Meemaw just had a diabetic sugar spell. She was going to be FINE! Yeah! Brad and Kerry would drive Oney back to Covington in the morning to be with Ginny...adult week was back on again! As we are walking out the door to meet Lori, Eric, Dion, Jeff and Austin, we got another disturbing phone call. Jeff's best friend from high school had been missing on Pickwick Lake since a windstorm came through around 2:30 that day! No way...that couldn't be...we heard the Coast Guard say they found everyone? There was another capsized boat at J P Coleman that we didn't hear about. Jeff's friend pulled up to the capsized boat, jumped in the water with three lifejackets to assist the people in the water, and they never saw him again. He was in excellent phyical condition and a great swimmer. He did not put on a lifejacket before he jumped in the water. The winds were crazy, the boats were blowing and bumping together, he must have been hit in the head. The found his body 48 hours later. We went ahead and went to dinner, but it was quiet. We felt terrible for Jeff and his friends family. We turned in early that 4th of July.
Tuesday, we slept in again (NICE) and worked around the house. I called to make sure Oney made it to Ginny's and I could tell something was wrong but he didn't want to tell me. He had just been stung by two red wasps. My poor baby...this was the first time he had been stung so I wasn't sure how he would react. Well, I should have known he would be like me...it was (is) horrible!!! I have been texting with Dr. Susan to make sure we are doing the right things to treat it. It is still swolen as I type this...we have decided to carry an epipen from now on!
SUNGLASSES are Oney's BEST FRIEND!!!
Judson laid a half a pallet of sod in the bare spots in the yard. We watered and cleaned up around the house. We checked our emails and worked a while. We decided around 6 to take a ride on the SeaDoo and meet Lori and Eric out for Sunset. GREAT time!
We were exploring a new waterfall until we found some unwelcome friends on a tree log...
We came back to the house and grilled burgers that night. We ate outside for the first time this year. It was so nice. The crickets were so LOUD! We went to bed pretty early so we could be ready for our boat trip the next day!
Wednesday, we packed up and headed to the Marriott in Florence, Alabama. Judson and I have been there several times before. It is a great trip to take on the boat. A neat hotel, wonderful spa, cool pool, great golf courses, delicious restaurants, what more could you wish for???
Our favorite restaurant in Florence is Ricatoni's. We just realized this trip that a Vanderbilt graduate started this restaurant in 1996. We have been there every time we go to Florence! GREAT place!
One of our favorite wines...Lori and Eric actually gave this to me when I had my hysterectomy last year and we have been saving for the four of us to drink. We just now had the chance! It was divine!
Eric in his golf attire...hmmmm...do you think his brother Ryan dressed him today?
Headed out to dinner. Of course, we didn't bring a camera since we didn't have the kids with us so we had to use our phones. We figured a furry picture was better than nothing!
The happy couple!
Thursday...
We were expecting some rough weather possibly on the way home, so we all opted to wear our life jackets! It ended up not being bad at all!
Great trip with great friends! We made it back safe and sound. We went to dinner at Ginny and Pop's that night and visited with my Mee-Maw. She looked great! Oney moved from camp Ginny to Camp Sittie today! He is having fun with Allie English and the neighborhood kids.
Friday...Well today was catchup with our chores day! Judson ordered a dump truck load of driveway rock. We hand shoveled the entire load into bare spots that have setlled over the past 10 years. Boy were we exhausted after that job. We cooked steaks and went to bed early for the first time this week! Going to get the kiddos in the morning and I can't wait to see them all...I have REALLY missed them!
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