Lake Guntersville 2009

This weekend, we took our annual fall weekend trip with Chris's family to a state park in Alabama - it is about two hours away from us. This is the fourth year we have done this. It is nice to have a quiet weekend away, with nothing much on the agenda - just time to relax and be together, and where the kids can get plenty of outside time!

They also got some quality family time... here's Cecilia being read to by her Gran. She loves this book (Go, Dog. Go!). Mommy was very glad to have somebody else read it! As my mom says, "That book is just... weird. I don't get it."

Caroline enjoyed having her Aunt Sara read a book to her as well. That chair they are in is one of those armchairs and a half, or whatever they are called... the cabins here were refurnished last year, with these big comfy armchairs and couches.

Of course, we couldn't completely "get away from it all," despite having no Internet access... the boys still had their toys (their phones with Internet service). I am still amazed at how a cell phone can pull up my email account...

My nephew Andrew enjoyed the telephone in the cabin - which was not working, so he was free to play with it! Aren't his pajamas adorable?? The adults enjoyed the board games (seen in the background) during the evenings!

Cecilia and Caroline played by the lake - throwing in rocks and sticks - and on the playgrounds. This is one by the lodge, which had swings. The playground by our cabins had no swings, but it was the only one with seesaws and a working merry-go-round thing. They don't put those kinds of things on playgrounds any more! Cecilia thought the big swings were fun, even if we couldn't push her very high.

She also climbed to the top of the slide but didn't want to go down. She had to go down in our laps. I love metal slides!

Inside the lodge, there are many dead animals, much to the girls' delight! There are bobcats, a fox, and this turkey. The lodge is very nice - it was renovated and reopened a little over a year ago - and Caroline and Cecilia liked exploring it. There is a gorgeous view off the back deck. My camera batteries died - and the charger is apparently dead too, so we couldn't take any more pictures after the one below... I would have really liked to get some family shots b the lake, or at least a photo of the cousins all together. Oh well, maybe next year.

Cecilia has decided to enjoy riding on Daddy's shoulders like this. He put her up there in the lodge as we prepared to walk back to the playground where we'd parked our van, and she protested with, "Want Mommy!" which really sounds more like "Muh Mommy!" Then she decided it was fun and stayed up there! My dad used to carry us like this when we were small, and we loved it.

We had a very enjoyable weekend with wonderful warmish fall weather! Thanks, Gran and Grandad!