Waiting Out the Storm

August 27th was Arch's birthday...and also the day Hurricane Irene was scheduled to make land fall on SC. Arch really wanted a family lake day on his birthday so all week we watched Irene's progress. We were thankfully she started to turn north and practically miss our state all together. Although the coast got some rain and strong winds...we just got a cloudy, breezy day out of the whole thing.

Once we saw the coast was clear for us we began planning our day. We headed out early Saturday morning...Arch took Ruth Ann to the lake house with him, I had a few stops to make on my way so I had just Tripp-man. We got to the lake just before lunch, met the Brown family and we ate lunch together. Then we hit the lake and headed to Hurricane Hole...the most appropriate place on the lake to wait out the storm...right??? We got there and found some friends of the Browns who had rented slide boat...imagine a 2 story pontoon boat with a slide from the upper decking shooting you straight into the lake...fun times were had by all! I wish I could have taken a picture...and though I am known to get in the water with my camera...I just wasn't brave enough to do it in water I couldn't touch the bottom in.

Eventually the Clarks joined the fun and shortly after the slide boat left. We floated and chatted a little while longer and then Graem...with his super stealth maneuvering...inflated the tube for us to enjoy. Jay and Justin went first and I was on the other boat, so I don't have any pictures of them...but after the Brown family left we loaded up on the Clark's boat and I got a few pictures of some of our tubers...





Do you think she has fun playing with her big brother??  And is there any doubt these two are related...Ruth Ann is what Spencer would have looked like if he had been a girl!



Then Mason joined in and Roper rode later with Graem...but I was holding babies while Arch drove the boat so I didn't get a picture of Roper riding...but he had fun, you'll just have to take my word for it!

Tripp just sat and enjoyed the ride...



Which must be hard when the life vest looks so uncomfortable!



And the wind really did a number on his hair...



Oh, I love those sweet cheeks and lips!

Then we headed in for hotdogs...which took a few more minutes to prepare than we had originally planned...but that just made them taste better when it was time to eat. After our bellies were full we loaded up tired babies...and tired mommas...and headed home. Ruth Ann was exhausted...she slept until almost 10am this morning...Tripp, not so much. He was up and looking for his breakfast bottle at 7:30am...so that means a Sunday nap is in my future!