lake nantahala

Last week we were gone from Aug. 9th until Aug. 16th to Lake Nantahala in the far southwestern corner of North Carolina (basically near where NC, SC, GA, and TN meet).  We went with my family and we had a great time.  The lake is small but absolutely beautiful.  There was no cell phone or internet service so we felt a bit disconnected from the world, but we did have TV and watched ALOT of Olympics.  Besides relaxing beside the lake (my mom and Karen shown here)...

We also spent alot of time watching the dogs swim and fetch (our Bales swam so much more than she ever has!).  We rented a pontoon boat on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.  Here are some pictures from the boat.  We tried to follow the rules and keep Caleigh in a lifejacket the whole time but she REALLY hated it.  Since she was so unhappy we decided to go ahead and let her practice driving the boat (with my assistance of course). In this photo Caleigh is saying, "Mom, I really don't like being out here with nowhere to crawl or cruise and nothing to explore... but at least you took off my lifejacket for a minute." My parents enjoyed some great Caleigh time while we were there.  I just weaned Caleigh/ she weaned herself the week before we left for the lake so each morning my parents got Caleigh up and fed her her bottle and her breakfast so that Adam and I could sleep in (which we are not very good at) but it was nice to at least be able to relax a little in the mornings.  And let me tell you - we needed the sleep with how late we were staying up watching the Olympics.  While we were at the lake I really saw the importance of DVR. :)

Here is a shot of Caleigh snuggling up to my mom (a special treat since the snuggling really doesn't happen too often with Caleigh - she is way too busy and not into being held that much).  Here are some (not very good!) shots of us tubing on the lake.  The pontoon actually pulled us pretty fast, especially with two people on there.  Here are some action shots of Adam and I. As you can see Adam was the deadweight on our team... Adam was a little exhausted and took a break for a little while in the boat with Caleigh. Then he went back out there with my brother, David. The dogs were exhausted after each day on the boat and all the swimming they did. Other than the boating we played alot of games; our favorites are: Settlers of Catan, Bananagrams (my new favorite!), and Hand and Foot.  Here is Karen working on one of the crafts that she brought for the week. Caleigh got some good Daddy time and laughed alot for him. Adam, David, and I also went rafting on the Nantahala River one day while we were there.  It was so much fun and I am SO bummed that I don't have any pictures of it.  The Nantahala River only has class 2 and 3 rapids but it was awesome because we went in a smaller raft by ourselves without a guide.  The 3 of us took turns guiding the raft down the river (about a 9 mile stretch).  We had a few mishaps along the way and the 37 degree water was FREEZING (we thought they were joking when the asked us about wetsuits but apparently not)... but it was so much fun.  I have never been so sore in my life as I was after paddling hard for 2 hours straight.

For those who have never seen it I wanted to include a short clip of Karen throwing a little tantrum (this one is just a joke - she is putting on a show for us as you can see from her smiles - but there are definitely real ones that I didn't film).  In this video we are joking her about what she is going to get to order for dinner when we go out that night.  Of course we all knew she wanted and would order: chicken fingers and fries as she does EVERYWHERE we go EVERYTIME we go out.  I seriously don't think she has ever gotten anything else.  She is such a good sport with all the joking and our trips would never be the same without her.  She always makes us laugh and is included in all of our best memories about vacations.

For those who were concerned about what Karen got to eat that night - she did order chicken fingers and even shared half of one with me!

All in all we had a great trip and can't wait to do it again next year.