Time to get away

This time of year seems to get so busy and sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the things we think we should be doing and end up not spending time enjoying each other's company. This morning we enjoyed watching Becca show off her Gymnastics skills she has been learning. Okay, it was a little much as the gym as no room for spectators so you are hardly able to see your kid and I had the other three kids with me who would have been a whole lot happier joining in the fun. Anyway, Becca did great-we even got a little smile out of her on the balance beam. She is always pretty serious. They did cartwheels, balance beam and then some other tumbling. It was about an hour long-James' limit. The Mini-Meet, as they call it was in the morning, seeing as Ron was drilling all day we decided to get out of town. We headed out to Tall Chief Cove-a spot we have been to on Skiatook lake that can be nice or scuzzy depending on how many people are there. I decided the morning after a little research to drive a little farther North to a smaller lake-Birch lake. It turned out to be a great call. The water was the cleanest I have seen in OK and I didn't find one beer can or cigarette butt in the beach...total bonus seeing as most of the places we end up I end up trying to ignore the filth. We ended up being the only family there besides for a couple little girls and their parents. Quiet, peaceful....just what we needed. The kids played in the sand and water all afternoon. James wasn't so sure of everything and spent most of his awake time trying to climb over me-such a lovely thing as he was covered in sunscreen and sand. At one point both Andrea and James were sleeping-I actually read two pages of a book-shocking! Then of course I had to do a little fishing. We ended up staying till dinner time, Brayden said he had a blast but would have had a lot more fun if daddy was there. I totally agree, it was a lot of fun but a lot of work which makes it hard to play with the kids-what they love, because I would rather sit after walking to and from the car a bunch unloading and loading.

 Brayden loves to fish but didn't want to put on his own worms-I caved and ended up putting one one and then walked away praying he wouldn't catch a fish.  Okay, I really didn't want to deal with a fish with a hook stuck down it's throat.  Would you know, HE CAUGHT ONE the instant I sat down.  I yelled I wasn't touching it, thankfully he got it off and back in the water!

 The  kids  had fun chasing these lizards-this one was so pretty, most of the other's were brown and hard to spot.

Oh James, not as easy going as the other kids-not only is he a picky eater he is not so sure of new situations.  He wasn't a big fan of the sand but did love throwing the rocks.  The  first time he saw a jet ski he flipped out, thankfully by the end of our stay he was waving to them as they flew by. James is by far the most fair skinned of my kids...his poor nose is still recovering from being burned earlier in the week.  He was covered multiple times with sunscreen today much to his dislike!

I picked up this tube before we left-the kids had a blast playing with it.  Toward the end of the day I think Becca floated for about 30min, I think she was getting a little tired.

My sleepy girl, she asked to lay down and did actually fall asleep.

The fresh air did James good.

 Becca getting her ribbons at the end of her gymnastics meet.

Warming up.