Meme's Birthday Weekend

This past weekend we celebrated Meme's (my Mom's) birthday up at the lake! I won't say that our trip UP to the lake was exactly a smooth one but we did have a great time once we all got there. We spent Saturday relaxing around the house and enjoying the beautiful weather. We talked about sitting out on the dock to get some sun but when it came down to it, we decided that long naps while the kids were sleeping would be a better use of our time!

(If you read Kimmie's blog, you've seen all of these pictures already! She beat me to the punch this time!)

Ellie was sitting in this chair and then called her Mommy over to sit with her. Then she looked at me and said "both" meaning she wanted me to sit there too. So, here we are. Ellie thought this was a riot!

Ellie likes to copy Wyatt sometimes ... if he's laying in his baby pool, she likes to be right there with him. She even put her fingers in her mouth like Wyatt tends to do!

I love this sweet picture of them.

Saturday was Mom's actual birthday so we celebrated with gifts and then went to dinner at this AWESOME asian place in Anderson. Before dinner, we actually had time for a few pictures which was a pretty big accomplishment considering we had 2 kids to get bathed and dressed.

Meme with Wyatt and Ellie

Me and Wyatt. (Mom said I needed an updated profile picture on my FB page since Wyatt is getting so big and changing so much!) Ben was busy watching Georgia Tech lose to Clemson so that is why he isn't pictured :(

Isn't this a fun entree! This was what Dad had for dinner.

Hope you had a great birthday, Meme!

Labor Day Weekend

Some of the highlights from our Labor Day weekend ....

We visited with GrandMeme and GrandPapa! Ellie and Wyatt had such a great time at their house and my grandparents enjoyed spending a little time with both kiddos.

We took several Kubota rides. This is one of Ellie's favorite things at the lake and Wyatt usually gets to ride along too!

Wyatt rode the fake deer with Ellie. Ellie usually asks her Papa for a ride on the 'bota' and one day they discovered these fake deer in a neighbor's yard. For a while she would just ask to get out and pet the deer and now she's started asking to ride them. Luckily the neighbors are nice and don't mind Dad taking Ellie up to the deer several times a day. (Or maybe they don't notice) I was riding with them and decided that if Ellie was going to ride the deer, Wyatt was going to do it too!

Wyatt doesn't look too impressed, does he? ha!

Ben did go on a little fishing excursion on Saturday morning but due to the cool front the fish were not biting. As Bill Dance splained' to us, when fish sense a cold front coming in they eat a lot the day prior then once it hits they quit biting for a few days. So, no fish for Benny this weekend ... sad panda :(

Wyatt had his very first boat ride this weekend!!! This isn't a great picture, but we did have to document the occasion. He was asleep in the boat when we decided to go, slept the whole time while I was putting his life jacket on and slept for the whole ride. So I guess he enjoyed it!
When we got back to the dock, Wyatt woke up and Mom took this which is one of my most favorite pictures of him ever. (Although I will admit that I have A LOT of "most favorite pictures" of Wyatt)

Ellie doesn't understand why sometimes she can't get Wyatt's attention by calling his name so she resorts to grabbing his face and trying to turn it toward her! I'm pretty sure that is what she is attempting to do in this picture.

Wyatt and I enjoying a little boat nap. The weather was so great -- in the shade it was almost cool so lying in the boat under the shade of the dock was a perfect napping spot!

We worked hard to get a picture of both kiddos smiling. I think we took about 31,217 pictures before getting this one which isn't perfect but it works!

I'll leave you with one last picture of the little monkey. He's usually very generous with his smiles but I was having a hard time getting one out of him during this photo session. Its like the kid knows when I want him to perform!

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words

Another typical lake weekend for the Longmire family (and also the Heglin family and the Burkett family!) Ben says my blog is boring when I write the same old stuff about the lake, so I'll just re-cap quickly via pictures. This past weekend we .......

celebrated Kimmie's birthday! worked hard to capture a smile on cameratested Wyatt out in his new bumpo

went on a few rides in the kayak caught some fish

took a few naps

visited with our cousins

swam in the lake

went for a few boat rides

caught some rays'

and we even water-skied!!! (me, mom, and kimmie all got up and skied for quite a while)

Ben's Birthday / 4th of July Weekend

We started out last weekend with a little mini-celebration of Ben's 32nd birthday. Since actually going out to dinner isn't so easy, we grilled steaks at home on Thursday night and enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner. Wyatt really is a good baby,but we're just not quite ready to take him out to a restaurant yet. Friday morning, we spoiled Ben with all his gifts and he headed off to Charlotte while we headed out to the lake.

Maternity leave has been great for lake traveling purposes -- we met Kimmie and Ellie at Mom and Dad's house and got on the road Friday morning so we actually got to the house before lunch. My cousin came over with her four kids and I'm pretty sure Wyatt really enjoyed watching them run all around!

Since we had a little break from the extreme heat, I put Wyatt in his bathing suit on Saturday and took him down to the dock. He enjoyed hanging out in the boat (in the shade) and even took several long naps there. Late Saturday afternoon, I got dressed and drove down to Chateau Elan to meet Ben at a rehearsal dinner for our friends Ashley and Mike. This was only the 2nd time I've left Wyatt during a feeding time, and once again he did great!

Wyatt also enjoyed playing with Ellie and posing for a few pictures for me and for Meme!

We spent Sunday morning back down on the lake (Wyatt in the shade on the boat again) and I even tried out our newest lake toy! This was the first weekend that I felt comfortable enough to do any exercise after my c-section ... they put the fear of God in you at the hospital not to do anything to bust a stitch so I had been extremely cautious for the last few weeks! Anyway, Dad and I went out on a little kayak ride in our cove which was really fun. I still haven't been brave enough to ride the Sea Doo or the boat just yet but maybe next time!

Wyatt spent more time playing with Ellie and posed for a few more pictures on Sunday as well!

His hat was just a little bit too big, so I couldn't resist taking a wigger baby picture! (Is that word offensive? If so, apologies ... not my intention to offend)

Kimmie, Dave, and I had Ashley and Mike's wedding Sunday night so we left Wyatt and Ellie with Mom and Dad. This picture was taken before we left ... I think they were saying "DON'T LEAVE US WITH THE BABIES!!!!" (Kidding ... they were happy to keep them, but I think next time they may prefer to babysit one child at a time)

The four of us had a blast at the wedding -- this one was very special to Kimmie and I because we actually introduced Mike and Ashley about 3 years ago. How is that for matchmaking success??!!? After the wedding, I drove drunk, drunker, and drunkest (won't say who was who) back to the lake so we could spend the day Monday up there.

We did Ben's family celebration at lunch Monday, where we grilled hamburgers and he opened more gifts and even had an ice cream cake!

After our fun-filled day on the lake, we did take a 4th of July family photo -- the first one of the 3 of us since we were in the hospital, I believe!

And I had to include this one of Ellie because its just so cute.

We had such a fun, long weekend and can't wait for our next trip to the lake!

Father's Day/Lake Weekend!

We took Wyatt on his first trip to the lake this past weekend! Little does he know, this is only the first of many lake weekends to come -- it is one of my and Ben's favorite summer activities so hopefully Wyatt will learn to enjoy it as much as we do!

Wyatt and I left the house early Friday morning and headed to Meme's (my mom) then from there went and picked up Kimmie and Ellie so that the 5 of us could get settled at the house before Papa (my dad), Dave, and Ben joined us later in the evening.

We all got there at different times and were exhausted from the day so we just had dinner, gave the kids baths, and got in bed early. Ben got up bright and early on Saturday morning and headed out fishing around our cove for a few hours while the rest of us relaxed and slowly started our day.

Wyatt had his very first Kubota ride down to the dock. It was hot so he didn't get to stay down there very long, but we did have to let him have a quick ride and get his picture on the Kubota! (He was so impressed by it that he slept right through his ride!)

Dad has been wanting to get a kayack for a few years now, and he finally went out and bought one on Saturday morning. Wyatt is a little too young to enjoy this just yet, and I'm still healing from my surgery so I didn't get to use it this time but Ben had a GREAT time fishing out of it! Mom snapped this picture of him standing up paddling like an Indian!

Ellie continues to be a great older cousin to Wyatt. She is so sweet with him and loves talking about Wy-we (this is how she says Wyatt), holding and loving on him. She also sometimes likes to pretend she is a baby and tries to steal his paci and use his little swing! So cute. And as you can see, Wy-we could really care less. This child loves his sleep!

On Sunday, we celebrated father's day with more fishing, relaxing on the dock, and grilling steaks for lunch! (This picture was actually taken on Saturday, but we just couldn't get it together to get an official Father's Day family photo on Sunday)

As always, the weekend ended too soon and we are now back at home but we have a busy week planned at home!

4th of July Weekend / Ben's Birthday

First of all, a programming note for those of you who care. If you'll notice on my righthand sidebar, there is a little Flickr icon that flashes up my recent picture uploads. This is where I will be posting all pictures from now on that aren't on the blog. If you click on one of the pictures, it will take you into my photostream and you can view all my photos. But add comments there if you do ... please please. I like comments!

Okay, back to the weekend recap. So if you read my blog on Thursday, you already know that was Ben's 31st birthday. We, along with a group of our friends, celebrated by going to the Braves game on Thursday night! (Thanks to everyone who came out to spend the evening with Ben) The night ended up with a W from the Bravos and a fireworks show that we watched from the parking lot! I think everyone had a good time and I know Ben enjoyed his day.

I got up early on Friday morning to head up to the lake while Ben was scheduled to play golf for the afternoon before meeting my family up at the lake that evening. We got there around lunchtime, and immediately went outside to enjoy the sun. We were so lucky because the weather was perfect -- sunny but not terribly hot. Ben arrived up there early enough to fish off the dock with Dave (brother-in-law) while the rest of us relaxed a bit. Because Ben's birthday was Thursday, we all went out to dinner to celebrate that night.

Ben gets to see Ellie fairly often, but this is the first weekend he has really spent with her in a while. Because of this, he spent lots of time playing with her and making her laugh ... we took a few pictures of the two of them this weekend as well.

On Saturday, we spent the day on the lake -- swimming, riding SeaDoos, listening to JackAss neighbor cuss out his grandchildren, fishing, and boating. Before we left to go up to the lake, Ben made me promise to ride Big Mable with him. The first time I rode on Mable, I fell off and seriously thought I was going to lose my vision. I had a headache for 3 days after my big fall! I think the expression on my face in this photo shows you how terrified I was.

Sooooo, after I screamed my head off, Ben let me get off and was able to talk Dave into riding with him. They had fun .....

until .....

they were thrown off!!!!!! Ben is still hurting from that fall, so I think its safe to say he now understands my hatred for the thing.

Oh, and I don't want to forget to show you this badassery that I saw out on the lake. How awesome is this houseboat!! Multi-colored vinyl siding? Check! SuperSweet palm tree art on the outside? Check! Man wearing jorts inside the floating trailer? Check! Plastic slide attached to the boat? Check!

Who wouldn't love a beaut like this???

That night, we grilled out at the house and went down to the dock to watch the fireworks. Our lake neighbor (not JackAss ... another neighbor) has this awesome point lot, and does a huge fireworks show every 4th of July. You can sorta see it in this photo, but there were probably 100 boats parked out in the cove to see the show.

We capped off the night by shooting some flaming balls of our own ....

Sunday was a little overcast in the morning, but we still got in a few more hours on the lake before paking up to head home. Of course when we were about to leave the sun came out and it turned out to be a gorgeous day! Isn't that how it always happens though? I just love these lake weekends. Sad that the summer is ending so quickly!!

That's about it. All in all, a great weekend!