A weekend at the lakes...

So many people we know spend Memorial weekend at the lake.  We've never been able to do that before.  Mainly, because pastors don't get Sundays off, so it's a little hard to go away for a long weekend.  Also, we've also never had a boat.  Now that we have enough kayaks to go around, we decided to spend each day this weekend going to a different Kentucky lake.  Add in the day off we had last week for Election Day and we hit four lakes last week. (On a side-note -- why do we have this day off of school?  Having 4 kids home with me makes me much, much less likely to go vote. Just sayin').

 

We went to Cave Run Lake, Greenbo Lake, Mill Creek Lake, and Buckhorn Lake.  There are so many small lakes around Kentucky!  All of these were less than 2 hours away.  So nice!  The kids loved Buckhorn because it had a nice swimming beach.  Chris and I loved Greenbo the most because it has a no wake policy which makes kayaking so much easier!  Facing the waves is fun for a little while (and the kids love them), but the kids also wear out much faster and we don't get to kayak as long.  A couple of times we had to tow Sam and Isabella behind our boats, but most of the time they were able to keep up with the rest of us.  Sam is actually a surprisingly good paddler!

 

Paddling...

 

 

 

 Being towed....

 

Working hard and relaxing....

Some of us may have been dreaming about sliding down the slides on those houseboats!

Fun outside of the kayaks!

 

It was a great weekend.  We had a ton of time outside enjoying beautiful lakes and we wore ourselves out! 

Always my rock climber...

Sophia has always been my little rock climber.  When she was four years-old, she took a rock climbing class at the YMCA and loved it!  Here are a few pictures.  Wasn't she cute? 

 

 

Today, she turned 12 years-old and she is still my little rock climber.  Every single hike we go on she finds something to climb on.  So this year for her birthday, we got her a season pass to Torrent Falls Climbing Adventure.  It's this amazing place 20 minutes from our house that has a Via Ferrata climbing system in place for beginners.  It uses cables and iron hand and foot rungs to help climbers get around. Today we pulled her out of school so she could try it for the first time.  She and Chris had a blast!  Here's a panoramic of the climbing area! 

 

 

Just hanging around!

 

This is how high up they were.  I am the green dot beside Sophia's shoe!

 

 

 

 

What an awesome way to spend a birthday!

 



Our first river trip...and my first experience flipping a kayak!

Saturday, Chris' parents came to town for a quick visit so we got our kayaks out, rented a couple extra plus a canoe, and decided to head down the river.  We were told it was about an 8 1/2 mile stretch that would take 3 hours if you simply floated and less time depending on how fast you paddled.  It took us about 5 hours. And we paddled.  A lot. 

Here are a few pictures of our adventure.  I could only take pictures during the really calm waters, but they turned out pretty well considering I was trying to paddle and take pictures at the same time!  We had a great time and can't wait to try again! 

 Look at this little thing! So proud of Isabella for kayaking all by herself down the river. 

Kids are good helpers!

 

Swimming in the very cold river! 

And this picture is proof that the waterproof case I put my cell phone in is actually waterproof.  Because, you know, I tested that theory out by flipping my kayak and getting fully dunked into the river!  Thank goodness nobody else had a camera!