Jon, Michelle, Nixon, Sadie, Darby and Gauge: July 2009

Hello ... slow updater here!! Sorry for the delay we have had fun this summer!

Back in June, we had a Spear Family Reunion at a lake cabin on Lake Roosevelt. We were there a week and had a TON of fun. We probably got too much sun, not enough sleep and ate too much... but what is a vacation for but all of these things wrapped into one?
It took Nixon a couple of days to like the sand and the water. He was ok with it all as long as he didn't have to crawl in it.

Will came from NY and Nixon had an instant buddy.

The boys made up games to play, of course. One would stand on the beach and throw the football as far as they could, while the other would be on the wave runner and try and catch it.
It was really funny to watch!

Sometimes they would dive into the water off the wave runner for the ball. It was entertaining to say the least.

Josh with Nixon and Will.

The lake water was super cold so we brought a little pool down from the cabin and filled it with lake water, hoping the sun would heat it up. It worked pretty good... but Nixon liked the beach better.

Emily and Nixon on the boat while I was tubing.

Me and Angela tubing it up... don't get too wild now ladies!

The more days on the beach, the more daring Nixon got with the sand.

He LOVED to find the big rocks and of course... put them in his mouth. YUCK!

He's thinking about it here.... and he did!

Jessy putting sunscreen on the boys backs... it was a funny to watch.

Yeah "fake" lizard in the mouth!! Luckily he didn't find any real lizards to put in his mouth.

We had a sand castle competition... a traditional castle. Ryan and the kids built this one!

I think it turned out quite good!

Josh (and Cody) built a drip castle. That looked pretty wicked.

I think the wicked witch of the sand lives here.

Lots of reading... and cooling off at the same. Tricky!

We tried to get Katie to water ski behind the wave runner.

But all we got was josh getting pulled into the lake when Katie couldn't stay up.

Daddy and Nixon.

Kathleen was dancing on the back of the boat on morning. It was so cute! This doesn't capture it quite good enough, but trust me watching her sing and dance by herself was adorable.

Super baby!

Roasting marshmallows at night... YUM!

Yes Jon did shave his nasty beard into this while we were on vacation.

Yeah, I WAS there... I knew I wasn't forgotten.

They had a spot of grass out back at the cabin. It made it nice to sit and play at night for a change from the dirt and sand.

Roasting more marshmallows... Yum again!

Cam played his guitar by the fire.

Nixon in the grass.

Where is Nixon???

Ah... here he comes!

There was even a swing set. Every time we walked up from the beach we passed it and Nixon or Will would want to swing... every time!!

Brandon and Katie sliding.

Volleyball!

Bump, Set, Spike... that is what we like!

More sports... we played wiffle ball on the beach.

Go Team!!

Jon of course hit it into the lake so they had to dive and catch most of his hits.

Nixon and I cheered, next year we will play!

Nixon waving!

Isn't he a cute beach bum?

He loved walking along all the beach chairs and finding "treats" in the cup holders.

More wiffle ball!

Kathleen trying to push the wave runner out by herself. You go girl!!

All the kids got stuck in the sand. On purpose of course!

Nixon was playing his own ball game.

Learning to drive... a little early!

Will giving Nixon hugs.

Playing with the cousin and uncle Jon.

Yeah hugs!! How cute are they?

More hugs... Nixon is thinking "this is enough"

Cute Daddy... shave that thing off already!

Well the football game wasn't "challenging" enough so they got a frisbee and threw it instead. However, they had to add a person onto the wave runner to catch it before it got lost into the depths of the lake. I think they got about 8 good throws before they finally lost it.

This was Nixon's favorite thing to do on the beach. Have a bucket of water and drowned the rubber duck in it.

Then pour it out onto himself.

We took the kids tubing behind the boat.

Go Nixon and Jon. We "think" Nixon had fun.

Hold on tight!

Josh and Will went too, Jon is trying to get Nixon to clap. Yeah!

Don't worry this is Jon and I out on the tube, NOT Nixon. I almost died when Jon decided to "Hop" the wake and land on top of me in the tube. Sucker!!

Tanner is a good little wake boarder! Way better than me.

Go Tan Man!

I can't believe he can do this outside the wake... HELLO!

Jon jumping the wake... good thing I got life insurance on him last year.

Yeah I don't think he landed this one... ha ha!

Big Air!

Cam wake boarding. The boys would all go out on the boat at the end of the day and each take a turn.

There was lots of these, for ALL the boys!

Ryan came and brought Jessy and Josh out to the boat so they could see Kirt and Josh wake board. Then he took me back to the beach because the boys would stay out there way too long for us to stay the whole time!!

Go Josh!

And Kirt!

Family Pictures!! We asked a guy in the next cabin over if he would come take our picture. For how many kids there are... it didn't turn out half bad!