What I did on my summer vacation

We had no Internet connection to speak of during our amazing week at Smith Mountain Lake, so I was unable to keep my followers (all three of you) up-to-date. But I'm going to try to remember some of the better points and chronicle our week for you now. Yippee!

Day 1: Saturday
We didn't leave until about 1pm as kid activities took precedence. Keeper Boy had a goalie clinic first thing in the morning and J-Mav had hockey class. Always hockey. Even in the middle of the summer. By the time they got home, I had the van packed to the gills and we were ready to go. Other than almost becomes victims of vehicular manslaughter on I-81 south (and overzealous lane changer in a Mercedes), our four hour trip was uneventful. We arrived at our rental home (called Lemon Zest) around dinner time. BFF and her kids had arrived a few hours earlier, unpacked, explored, swam in the lake, and showered. We made quick work of unloading our car, touring the house, making a pasta dinner, and then heading down to the lake ourselves. Our house was in a quiet cove and the best part was that we knew our neighbors! We found out a few months after we'd rented this house that our friends, the MJJJ family, had bought the house next door to Lemon Zest last summer! And they were there last week, too. Fun! They have an excellent rope swing and an opening in their sun deck to jump into the lake below (about a 15 - 20 foot drop to the water)!

Day 2: Sunday
We hung in/around the lake for most of the day. All except for BFF. She had to drive home to get her puppies since the woman she hired to dog/house sit never showed up. Nothing like driving four hours home and then four hours back down again THE DAY AFTER you'd arrived at your vacation desitination in the first place. Anyway, she was back by mid-afternoon. We had an assortment of rafts, floats, and fun noodles; a kayak; and a canoe. We spent the entire day in the lake and then headed over to the marina to check it out and to grab some dinner at Moosies. Good food!

Day 3: Monday
BFF and I lounged on the sun deck most of the morning, and we all spent time in the lake. By the afternoon I was working on a migraine, so I actually laid down for about four or five hours. I haven't a clue what happened during that time, other than the fact that BFF went over to the marina and rented a pontoon boat and tube for the next day, and Hubby grilled burgers and dogs for dinner, which were ready when I dragged myself out of bed having reduced my migraine to a dull headache with my wonder drug (Alleve-D) and a bag of frozen peas.

Day 4: Tuesday
Tuesday was actually the worst day we had, weatherwise; however, there were no refunds on the boat rental, so we threw on sweatshirts and off we went. We tubed all day -- most of it in the rain. And we had tons of fun despite the weather! We managed to rip our tube at the end of the day. Oops. We had some yummy ribs for dinner that night!

Day 5: Wednesday
Another lazy day in the lake. Another minor crisis for BFF. She managed to put her iPhone in a cup of water in her car the night before and didn't realize it for 20 minutes. So Wednesday morning she drove over to Roanoke (location of the nearest Apple store) to take care of that. She was back by lunchtime. The rest of us hung out in the lake and with the MJJJ family. In the afternoon, J-Mav and V went skiing in the cove with the MJJJ family's ski boat. They had so much fun that we decided we needed to rent a boat for a day. So that night we went in search of a marina that had a boat available for rent either Thursday or Friday. We found one for Friday and got some amazing pizza to take home for dinner.

Day 6: Thursday
Lake day! Are you sensing a pattern here? Actually BFF and I spent some more time on the sun deck. We spent some time tubing and skiing with the MJJJ family in the afternoon. And we had burgers and dogs for dinner again.

Day 7: Friday
SKIING!! What a fun day! We were out skiing ALL day. Everyone got up on skiis (except me). J-Mav LOVED it. BFF is a natural on skiis. Hubby did great, but had some pretty spectacular crashes, apparently. I didn't see any of them because I was driving when he was skiing. But Hubby said he got a little over confident and got outside the wake and then hit another boat's wake and it dumped him a$$ over tea kettle. We went back and fetched J (the dad of the MJJJ family) and took him out with us... he nevers gets to ski because he's always driving the boat for everyone else. He's a great skier, too. We were so proud of all the kids for even trying skiing, let alone doing it succesfully! And J-Mav didn't get sick on the boats all week! After everyone cleaned up, the MJJJ family came over for BBQ chicken. We wanted to thank them for answering all the questions we bombarded them with prior to the trip and for taking us out on their boat and letting us use their trainer skiis for the kids.

Day 8: Saturday
We didn't have to check out until Noon, but it was raining, so once we were up and packed, we took off. Hubby and J-Mav headed home with BFF's puppies. And BFF and I and the other three kids headed to Blacksburg. We wandered around Blacksburg, found a hotel, and ate at a cool little Italian place for dinner.

Day 9: Sunday
We killed time at a shopping mall and then dropped the kids off at camp at 2pm. We were on the road back home by 3 and pulled into my house just after 7pm. Not bad.

It was a great vacation, and we're already talking about next year. I can't wait!!