Holiday Weekend

**Warning** Longest Post Ever** Consider yourself Warned**

What a weekend we've had.  It's been one of those that you look forward to for weeks only to have nothing go as planned and you almost wish you'd never tried then the clouds part and you remember why you went to all the trouble to begin with.  Friday night my parents picked me up around 6:00 we crammed all my stuff in the car. I packed light...thank goodness!  We stopped by to get Ava and Drew decided he wanted to come too.  So we all climbed into moms car and we were off.  Drew was upset and crying because he was supposed to go with his dad one night and he decided he'd rather go to the lake.  He was worried that he'd made the wrong decision.  It was a teaching moment.  I explained to him that most often when you are given two choices you will wonder if you really chose the right one.  You have to make your decision with confidence and not let yourself worry about the option you didn't choose.  He didn't really care what I had to say!  He kept saying he thought he was going to throw-up.  I thought he was just upset about his decision.  We finally got to the lake and he jumped out of the car and vomited more than you could imagine.  He then decided to tell us he'd been sick all day long.  Great!  so we get to the lake and the power is out.  Has been out for about 3 hours.  We got the car unloaded and were settling in to chatting by candle light.

My sister, Amy, Aunt Pam and Uncle Donald were already there so they already had all the candles lit.  Uncle Donald had rigged up the tv to run on the car battery so at least we had that.  Drew laid down and took a really long nap!  Elizabeth, Amy, Ava and me decided we'd play Mexican Train dominoes by the light of a flashlight and candle light!  It was fun! 

 Then we hear a lot of commotion in the den.  Apparently Ava started violently vomiting! So if you thought cleaning up puke was bad imagine trying to clean it up by candle light.  So we got her and everything cleaned up and put her to bed.  Well she got sick again and again and again.  It was awful!  She was pitiful!  It made me so sad for her.  Meanwhile Drew woke up from a three hour nap and he felt way better.  He was back to is normal self.  So there was hope that Ava would feel better when she woke up.  It finally quit raining and we sat outside for a little while.  The power was out on our side of the lake for as far as we could see.  We could see the guys working on the lines and they were struggling.  They would get the power on for a minute or so and then we would hear the transformer blow.  We all decided to call it a night and we settled in.  Elizabeth, Amy and I got the room with the king size bed.  We laughed so much.  It was much roomier than the fold out couch we slept on at the beach.  We stayed up telling Amy stories about the lake and some of the funniest things that we remembered.  (We've had the house since I was 6 months old so as you can imagine there are tons of stories to tell).  Finally at about 3:00am the power came back on.  Every light in the house was on!  It was kind of funny!  We turned off some lights and finally went to sleep. 

Ally woke me up before 6 to go out.  Drew was already up so we just sat up and he read scary stories to me.  It was so sweet.  I was so excited that he was feeling better.  Then we heard Ava.  She was still sick.  She was so upset.  She was crying and just kept saying she wanted to go home.  I wanted to cry too!  I got her something to drink and told her to try to go back to sleep because I didn't want her to go home!  I really felt like she would feel better since Drew did!  So she went back to sleep.  It was about 6:45 by now and everyone was up.  Dad was getting his list together he was going to go up to the Dollar General to get Ava some Gatorade and a few other things we needed. I think I forgot to mention that it was raining, with no sign of letting up.  It was going to be a long day of eating, reading, napping, and playing dominoes.  (Kind of sounds like a retirement home!) At least we had power!!! Uncle Donald was out fishing in his rain gear and Drew was going stir crazy.  We found him a rain jacket and sent him out.  He caught two fish and was so excited!  He took the fish in the house and showed it to Amy and Elizabeth (who had gone back to bed!).

I laid down and started reading, then I took a little nap.  When I woke up I heard Ava giggling.  She was like a new child she said she felt so much better and was ready to go swimming. Then around noon the rain stopped and the skies cleared.  We all hurried and got our swim suits on and greased up to hang out in the sun because we didn't know how long it'd last.  It lasted the rest of the afternoon and the night was clear too!  We sat outside and talked and laughed!  It was so much fun!  Ava climbed up in my lap and let me hold her for hours.  It was so sweet!  I love that she still loves to cuddle.  I was just like that growing up!

Amy, Elizabeth, Drew, Ava and I canoeing.

I got tired around 9:30 and headed to bed.  I finished the book I was reading and was out like a light.  We were getting up early to go to church.  Ally did not like sleeping on the top bunk.  She was a nervous wreck and didn't sleep well at all.  Elizabeth and I went to church and then we stopped by the Dollar General to get some ice.  When we got back to the lake house the sun was out and Patrick was there.  He came up when he got off work Sunday morning.  I was so excited he got to come.  Then around noon it started raining again.  We all piled in the house.  We played some more dominoes!  I love that game!  The guys had already started the grill so we put an umbrella over it and they continued to cook!  Around 2 the rain stopped!  My brother Patrick and Leslie came and brought Porter and Harper and those babies were so excited to be at the lake.  Harper swam and Porter talked about swimming but he wasn't crazy about the water.  We played outside for about 2 hours then it stated raining again.  We all crammed around the tv and watched the race.  We had a little wager on the race.  Everyone put in a dollar and got to pick 3 cars and whoever's driver won got the pot ($14)!  My driver ran second most of the night.  He led a few laps towards the end but he didn't win!  Patrick and I loaded up and headed home around 10 last night. Today we had lunch with the Horton's...we just got home.  I love just sitting and talking with them.  That is exactly what we've been doing ally day long! 
I have more pictures to add later.  My computer is being difficult!