July 4th Weekend

The pictures for this post are separate one with a similar title.

What a great extended weekend we had! We're completely worn out now, but it was well worth it : ) Josephine was a little cranky in the water, but she did fine once she got used to it. She swam in the lake and in the pool. The boat ride put her to sleep most of the time. A combination of the snug fit of the life jacket, the wind, and the movement is what did it I think. Josephine was adored all weekend long. It was wonderful to see how many people love being around her! : )

We left for Lake Oconee (I hope I spelled that right) in Georgia on Friday afternoon. Traffic was horrible! It took us almost an hour to get out of Knoxville. So, it took us about 6 hours to get there. We stayed with the Clinton family at the lake. Meredith's parents have a beautiful house there, only about 75 yards from the lake.

On Saturday we watched the Portugal vs England World Cup match in the morning (Portugal won). We also watch Josephine in her beginning stages of crawling. She'll get up on all fours, but doesn't make too much progress. Sometimes she gets up on her tiptoes and sticks her bottom way up in the air. She's getting better every day. That afternoon some of us went knee boarding. Josephine and Nathan stayed ashore and probably napped and watched the Brazil vs France game (can you believe Brazil lost????). The marina was very nice. All you have to do is call them and they put the boat in the water for you and fill it up with gas and whatever else you need. I tried to board, but I couldn't stay up. Others were much better at it. We went to the pool that evening. Josephine floated around in her float for awhile, but got cranky. It was funny watching all the men playing with Josephine. Greg, Meredith, Matt, Nathan, and I played Shanghai (a card game) that night.

On Sunday we all went out on the boat late morning and went swimming in a cove. The water was warm and not very fishy. Josephine had her first lake-swimming experience. The life jacket was a little uncomfortable for her, but we tightened it up so that it wasn't bothering her neck so much. She was in the water for a little bit then got back in the boat and Greg put her to sleep (it was very cute). After a lunch break at the house, some of us went back out for tubing. We all had a good time at that. The guys, of course, wanted to go fast and hope to hold on. Some held on, some didn't. But they all were complaining the next day about how sore they were. (Nathan is still sore 4 days later.) Meredith and I were satisfied going a bit slower. I couldn't stop laughing when we doubled on the tube. That night most of us went to the hot tub/pool. Josephine and I stayed at the house along with Mamaw Clinton and Melissa. Then some of us played poker. It was the first time I had ever played for money (and I think the third time every playing period) and I actually made a little money. By "little" I mean only $2, but it's better than nothing. Phillip won overall, but I don't remember how much he made. I was proud of myself. (Btw, Nathan lost : )

Monday morning we lounged around until the afternoon. We had a big, late breakfast (thanks to everyone who cooked!). Some of us went out on the boat that afternoon and played. Nathan and Josephine stayed at the house while I went out. Mamaw Clinton and Jeannie both went tubing! Unfortunately, Jeannie hurt her knee getting into the tube, but she toughed it out and went anyway. Mamaw Clinton's entire family is very proud that she tubed (this was her first time). She took it like a pro! There was a great wipe out by Roe that afternoon too. He got about 5 feet of air and the tube got about 30 feet. He was pretty sore the next day. After tubing Greg and I tried skiing, but neither could quite get it. Roe knee boarded back to the marina. We had an early dinner then went to see the firework show at the local Rizt Carlton Hotel. The grounds were very nice (duh) and on the lake. It was hot so we gave Josephine alot of water. We blew some bubbles, which she liked. She was a little cranky, though. Nathan figured out that she thought we were eating (dipping the stick into the bottle, then putting the stick to our mouths) and she wanted to eat too. She did great during the fireworks. I thought it would scare her. I think since she saw them before the noise came, the noise didn't scare her. She watch the entire 20 minute show. She didn't cry until everyone clapped at the end. The clapping scared her, go figure.

On Tuesday, we all layed around the house. In the afternoon we watched the shuttle launch. Josephine kept getting hurt that day. She started to do a swan dive off the chair and when Nathan went to catch her, he scratched her head with his fingernail pretty hard. She cried and cried. Then, during the launch, she lunged forward and hit her mouth on my soda can. No blood, but it hurt her. We left shortly after the shuttle launch and got back in about 5 hours.

Nathan and I were disappointed when we had to leave, we were having such a good time. It's rare for me to not be ready to go home. I almost always get homesick after a couple days. Hopefully we can get together again soon.

I have uploaded all of the pictures that I took onto Snapfish.com. If you want to see the pictures, give me your email address and I'll email you the link. (I can't just give you a direct address, sorry.) You'll need to give your email address and create a password, but it doesn't cost anything. You can either leave a post here or email me, whichever you'd like.

Sorry this post is so long, but I had such a good time, that I wanted to write down what we did. I'll post some Josephine Updates later on.

Josephine turns 7 months old on Thursday!