Lake Whitney Vacation Pictures

For a mini-summer vacation, the boys and Adam drove to Lake Whitney with Lindsey on Friday to meet up with Lola and Papa at a family condo. I had a little bit of work to do, so I came later in the day. (Pictures from the first day to come later). I managed to grab a quick photo of the boys on their way out the door in the morning though. They were SO excited to get to the lake!

There was pool time and boat time (those pictures in an upcoming post), but about 5 minutes after I arrived that afternoon, I heard a tiny voice in the bathroom saying, "Mommy?"

Ethan has a tendency to close himself into rooms. And by the way, he can't open the door yet. This was the first time though, that he closed himself into a bathroom and then LOCKED THE DOOR. I didn't even know he knew how to do that!

I guess he didn't either, since he couldn't unlock it. Adam tried to bobby pin it open...

Papa also gave it a good try...



Lola called security...

And Lindsey and I laughed at Ethan's expense. He finally got free, the little stinker. He thought it was pretty funny.

So first things first, we celebrated Father's Day all weekend long with cards for dad and Papa.

Then we headed to the pool. It was 103 pretty much the entire weekend, so the pools and the lake were nice.

Apparently, Aden got a big old case of the "I'm five's" because this kid was doing all kinds of things he otherwise is too afraid to try. Like, getting into a boat tube BY HIMSELF EVEN, doing cannonballs into the pool and swimming on his back. Big weekend for Aden!



Then it was back to the condo for some relaxation, which was appreciated, since these boys were completely wiped out. Ethan did some camera discovery (see photo of Lola)

And got his favorite books read by a new storyteller...

Aden went out on the back patio overlooking the golf course and I found him like this:

  

 

After books and pajamas and finding beds for each kid, it was time to sleep. We put Ethan on a blow up mattress in our room, and Aden on a pad of blankets and his sleeping bag on the other. It was at this point that chaos ensued.

• Ethan woke me up approximately 5 times with a little goats wail letting me know he had fallen off the bed. So I'd put him back on and go back to bed.
• At around 4:15am, he fell off the bed, but at this point realized he was in an unfamiliar place in the middle of the night and thus began the Lake Whitney Freak Out.
• I tried to pat his back and let him know that I was there, and then he began calling out for Adam too, in which he acknowledged he was also there.
• Then he began crying again, this time louder, to let us know he was still not satisfied with the situation.
• At this point, Aden woke up (and I suppose the rest of the condo as well).
• I grabbed Ethan and put him in bed with Adam and I, thinking this might help ease him and get him back to sleep. This was the approximate moment that the Lake Whitney Nighttime Playtime began.
• Ethan was giggling, laughing, jumping, waving blankets, pulling hair, calling out names, looking for his purple monkey - you. name. it.
• Aden began to complain about his shoulder hurting, which I thought might be from sleeping sideways on the hard floor, so I had him move to the air mattress and began rubbing the shoulder (later, way too late, I realized it hurt because it was burned, in which rubbing it was not helping - oops).
• In the meantime, Ethan was out of control. Insert nasty things Adam said that he can't take back.
• At some point, about thirty minutes after the Lake Whitney Freak Out, I announced that we would not be staying another night.
• Aden tried to "talk" himself to sleep by telling long, drawn out stories under his breath which kept Ethan awake. No amount of asking Aden to stop talking would make him stop.
• At around an hour and a half after the Lake Whitney Freak Out, Adam announced that we would not be staying another night.
• Somehow, two-ish hours later, both boys fell asleep. Ethan slept sideways on my side, I was forced to sleep on the foot of the bed with my head hanging over the side.

We got out of bed at around 8am the next day frazzled, blood shot eyes and bad attitudes and Adam and I had a quick but very real thought of jumping in the car and running. I'm glad we didn't though because once we all kissed and made up, we hit the lake and had a fabulous time. Aden showed me his tubing skills, and Ethan further became a lake rat.

(Golf Dreams...)

Aden is such a great helper with his brother, getting his shoes off and making sure he's comfortable and having a good time. And doesn't mind one single bit that Ethan has started doing and saying everything Aden does. I think at this point, he's sort of honored that Ethan thinks so much of him.

Look how adorable Ethan is!

Isn't Aden so handsome?

And this kid amazed us all by asking to go by himself into the tube. First! None of us would have put money on that bet. I'm so proud of how confident and brave he's becoming.

Of course, Ethan wanted to go by himself too, which we nixed. He also tried to get us to let him go just with "Allie" (his nickname for Aden, and the ONLY thing he calls him), but we nixed that as well. So he was stuck with mom. I don't think he minded too much.

 He also got some turns with daddy.

 After the lake, the boys talked us into a quick trip to the playground, which was actually a pretty fun one!

Lola, Papa and Lindsey left that afternoon, but despite our better judgement, we stayed one more night. The boys got cleaned up and then we relaxed a little more and watched cartoons.

The second night was drastically different. First, we put Ethan in a real live twin bed. Pushed up against the wall. With mounds of pillows all around. Then about a half hour later (once he was asleep), we tried to put Aden to bed in the other twin bed. Only hang up of the night - he didn't want to sleep in there. He wanted the big bed, and he wanted Adam and I to find our own lodgings for the night. Armed with the fact that I'm the mom and I ultimately win, I let him fall asleep in that bed and then an hour or so later when I was ready to go to bed, I moved him to the twin bed.

Pick your vacation battles.

We woke up the next morning to cheers and giggles and everyone was happy. The boys immediately went golfing (no time even for real clothes).

And after we packed up the car, we headed back home. The boys loved watching for wildlife all the way out of the lake. During the vacation, we saw deer, roadrunners, fish, rabbits, and loads of different types of bugs. Ethan has a slight obsession with deer now, and he says they are "pretty." He even made Lola draw a picture of one.

Vacations are fun.