July Fourth Vacation

(This blog post has a TON of pictures, or a "dillion" pictures, as Sarah would say.  We had a great trip and at least three different people taking pictures of all the fun we had.  It was too hard to choose which pictures to leave out, so I tried to only pick my favorites to post, AND all of the pictures that make me smile.  Happy picture looking at time to you and you and you!)

Thursday, July 3rd ~ first day in Bella Vista on the lake

We arrived at my Uncle Ernie and Aunt Judy's house in Bella Vista late in the afternoon on Thursday.  Ernie and Judy have a big house on the biggest lake in Bella Vista, Arkansas, Lake Loch Lomond.  They also have a great wrap around deck on the back of the house that overlooks the lake in all directions, with stairs that lead down from the deck to their boat dock, where they keep their pontoon boat.  Yes, we had a GREAT place to stay and GREAT hosts!

The girls wanted to head down to the dock almost immediately after arriving.  Popee and Daddy got the fishing gear and they all started some fun fishing off the dock for Perch.  They caught one little Perch after another, and were excited each time a little one latched onto their hooks.  

The excitement continued as one little fish after another was pulled in and thrown back until Sarah hooked into something big... Popee just happened to be standing next to her when it happened... a BIG Bass grabbed her worm and took off.  Popee grabbed her little Dora the Explorer fishing pole from her hand and instinctively pushed the button on it to release the line so that the BIG Bass wouldn't break the line during this fish fight. We all ran to the edge of the dock to see if we could catch a glimpse of what was bending the heck out of Sarah's pole.  And there it was... a BIG 5-6 pound Bass.  All the fisherpeople on the dock's adrenaline was pumping!  Ernie ran to get a net, hoping that one of us could net it.  Eric grabbed the net from him and as he bent over to swoop the fish into the net the Big Bass got off the hook.  Just as easily as he had gotten on he was off and gone.  Oh, the let down.  Sarah was just sure that Popee had "let the biggest fish she had ever caught get away".  Oh, the disappointment.  We did see this Big Bass several more times over the course of our visit though.  It apparently really likes to hide under Ernie and Judy's dock, swimming in and out right in front of us.  We all tried to catch him again with several different kinds of bait while we were there, but Ernest T. Bass could not be fooled again.

That evening we all loaded onto the pontoon boat and headed out on the lake to watch the sunset and then the fireworks that were being shot off out above the dam.

Silas helped Uncle Ernie drive for a little bit.  Then he sat on Daddy's lap and each time a firework was shot up into the sky he would say, "firework boom".  And, then he fell asleep on Daddy's lap and stayed asleep while the fireworks show continued.

It was beautiful!  One of the best fireworks shows I have been too.  The lights, the water, the echos of the fireworks booming around the lake, and all of the boats all out parked in the darkness on the lake watching the sky sparkle.

Friday, July 4th ~ second day in Bella Vista on the lake
Eric woke up early and headed down to do his daily reading on the boat dock.  Sarah woke soon after him, and quietly woke her Popee up and they headed down to the dock together to get an early morning start on fishing.  After Phoebe and I woke up she joined them.

All three kids got some giant bubble wands from Aunt Judy and Uncle Ernie and they had lots of fun blowing bubbles and trying to catch the bubbles

 

More fun driving Uncle Ernie's boat...

Sarah was a little bit more of a serious boat driver...

Loving the boat rides and the lake!

Littlest driver on board...

Tubing! Phoebe rode with me first.  She wanted to go pretty slow, but I eventually talked her into giving the "thumbs up" sign and we went a little bit faster.

Sarah rode with me and wanted to go faster and faster and faster.  Even giving the "double thumbs up" sign to Ernie.  Eventually we were flying and bouncing and water was spraying in our faces.  We both couldn't stop laughing.  It was very fun for both of us!

"Double Thumbs Up"

Silas took a short ride with me.  All he seemed to want to do was touch the water.  I had to really hang on to him tight so that he wouldn't just flop right out of the tube while trying to reach for the water.

Back at the boat dock some of us decided to keep cooling off in the water by swimming and chasing each other in the water.

Then the jumping in craziness began... Eric pulled my Dad into the water.  Sarah did some big jumps...

There were lots of smiles...

And then the frisbee throwing started.

My Dad would throw the frisbee from in the water and Eric would jump, dive and spin while he tried to catch the frisbee before hitting the water.  Hilarious!

That evening we all went to a community 4th of July concert.  There were lots of patriotic songs played for a large crowd to enjoy.

Aunt Judy and Phoebe took several selfies.  I love it, and them!

~ God Bless the USA! ~

We watched more fireworks that night off the deck of Ernie and Judy's house.

Saturday, July 5th ~ third day in Bella Vista on the lake
Our third day on the lake brought more tubing around the lake.  Silas and I went first.

Then the girls rode together.  It was funny to watch them riding and laughing.  At one point Sarah was even trying to hold onto Phoebe so that she wouldn't bounce out of the tube.  What a thoughtful big sister thing to do!

It had been two years since I last water skied and I really wanted to while we were there, so Uncle Ernie hooked up the rope, and handed me the skis.  We took off and up I went, right out of the water and around the lake two times!  The water was a little rough which made it more challenging to stay up and balanced, but I did it.  About halfway around the lake the second time I may have felt like I was going to die, or my arms were going to be instantly ripped off, but I made it.  Climbing out of the water back into the boat my legs may have felt like they turned to JELLO, but after about twenty minutes they went back to normal.  This mom is in her mid-thirties, and so out of shape, but I still got it on skis.

After I was through, my ski instructor wanted to have a go at it too.  It also has been a few years for him, but he popped right up also.  Go Dad, Go Dad, Go Dad!

Swimming with Popee...

We visited the Glass Chapel and took a short hike around it and the lake it overlooks in Bella Vista. 

Homemade banana and peach ice cream for all of us before we head over to the "bat cave".

That evening we went to Crystal Cave to watch the thousands of bats flying out of the cave as it got dark.

What an cool experience   If you look closely in the pictures below, you will see many bats coming up out of the hole in the ground (the cave).

In the picture below I decided to try to shoot a picture looking up at the moon above the cave.  I caught a bat along with the moon!

Sunday, July 6th ~ fourth and last day in Bella Vista on the lake
Up and on the dock for some fishing before we head back to Kansas

Thank you Ernie and Judy for a great family fun time!  We all had a fantastic time.