Summer Vacation ~ who needs Chevy Chase when Uncle Mark is along!!

I guess I better warn you, this post is going to be a long one. I just have too many fun things to write about, so grab a drink and get comfy....





We took a week of vacation and headed to Southern Kentucky a few weeks ago. We love it there. We always have a great time. This time was no different.

We have some great friends that we've known forever. Denise and Mark. Denise is the one who went to Vietnam with my Mother-in-law and me to get Khoa. Anyway, we always have the best time with them. We just travel well together and have fun, no matter what happens. Well, they came down to Kentucky later in the week and brought their "new to them" boat and their two youngest boys. We headed to Lake Cumberland for a day of fun in the sun.



Rob and I rented a double-decker pontoon boat with a slide off the back and then Mark and Denise had their fast boat. They were going to go ahead of us and find a nice spot off the beaten path so that we could tie up and let the kids swim and play.

Everything was going pretty good...for the first five minutes. They started having problems with their boat. Honestly, they had it in the water for five minutes at the most and the engine started over heating. I felt so bad for them because they had been so excited to get it on the lake. We went ahead and found a place to swim and Rob and Mark tried to work on the boat. The boat was taking on water....fast. Rob and Mark decided that they better get the boat back to the marina. They tried to get it started and it wouldn't start so we ended up towing the boat behind the pontoon.

Mark and Rob bailed water out of the boat as fast as they could...with 16 oz. plastic cups! I know it's terrible, but it was one of the funniest things I've seen. They looked so silly, but we didn't have anything else bigger to bail water with. Let's just say, Uncle Mark was not a happy boy! They ended up getting the boat started a few minutes before we reached the marina. They untied from the pontoon and was able to drive the boat the rest of the way and get it on the trailer. The boat sat on the ramp and water drained out of it for probably 10 minutes! Luckily, the pontoon was big enough for all of us and we were able to go back out on the lake and enjoy the rest of the day.

While playing in the lake, we discovered a new use for mini-marshmallows. Uncle Mark and Khoa were having so much fun. I couldn't stop laughing, so I'll apologize now for the bumpiness of the video....hang in there till the end.

It's hard to tell in the video, but their were tiny little fish biting at the marshmallows. The more we threw in the water, the more little fish would swarm around to get a bite of the sweet stuff. It was really funny, especially when the kids threw a handfull of marshmallows right at Mark. He got out of the water pretty fast and I can't say that I blame him.

Here are a few pictures that I took during the weekend.

Betsy has decided that she likes taking pictures of flowers and she does a great job. She took the opportunity to snap a few shots of Great-Grandma's flowers. I was so proud of the pictures she took I had to create a slide show of a few of them.

Our oldest daughter, Erin, has been working at our local pool as a lifeguard this summer and that has kept her very busy. She likes making some cashola, but doesn't have much time for anything else. She enjoyed our KY vacation because she was able to relax. She read a book, relaxed and just enjoyed not having to be at work. She doesn't like the camera, so I really don't have very many pictures of her, but I promise she was with us!