Togetherness

Part 2:

It is not very often that we manage to get all 

SEVEN

of our young women together in one place and at the same time.

But we did it...

and it doesn't hurt that we had the funnest activity planned.

My personal favorite:

BOATING!

Ever since I was young and would go on my friends family boat...

I have had a love for boating and the water.

I have ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS

wanted a man with a boat!

So when I met Ron and he had a boat...

well it was love at first sight!

Of the boat that is!

Haha...well not true, not true at all.

But I did think it was pretty sexy that he had a boat.

So last year when we had the opportunity to purchase an even

BIGGER boat...

one that would fit our family better...

we jumped on it!

I have never been more happy of any decision as I have had of us buying this boat.

I like to say,

that a family that boats 

TOGETHER

stays TOGETHER!

That is just as true for my little family I have at church with my group of girls known as the 

LAUREL class.

Just looking at the pictures and seeing their happy,

smiling faces confirmed to me

once again...

that enjoying nature,

doing something fun together,

and laughing

(and oh boy, did we do a lot of laughing)

can truly bring a group

TOGETHER.

Have I mentioned before how much I love, love, love

these beautiful girls?

Well, I will mention it again and again because

I do!

 Bailey is our artist extraordinaire!

Jessica and Megan...always up for having FUN!

 

Montana keeps us laughing...

I always tell her she needs to do 

stand up comedy! 

Seriously, this girl has some serious comedy skills! 

 Megan, Jessica and Katee looking forward to the first tube ride!

 Our beautiful, bronzed Sydnee!

We tubed from the time we got onto the lake

until sundown!

 I laughed so hard...

that my stomach hurt the next day!

 Our cute Tenille couldn't hang on any longer...

 and she was going...

 going...

 No chance of recovery...

 GONE!

Did I mention how much we laughed?

It made up for not getting my sit-up work out in for the day!

Our family loves to jump off this one cliff and I couldn't resist taking the girls to it too.

Sydnee and I jumping together!

 Jessica and Megan 

with a nice photobomb from Katee!

 Montana...I love her form!

 I love that when someone suggested we all jump

TOGETHER...

 that no one missed a BEAT!

 Except for these TWO...

haha...

 they did do it and it cracks me up that it was these two that didn't jump at the last minute with the rest of us

because they are the two that are the 

most alike!

If you know them at all...

this picture says it all!!

 But as the SUN was going down...

 and we only had a few more minutes left together...

I love that we had put aside for the day

any differences...

any schedules...

any boys or distractions...

and that they all choose to spend those last few minutes on the lake

TOGETHER!

Now that's enough to make us

ALL

jump for joy!

Peer Pressure...

Every summer we allow our kids

ONE

day each where they are allowed to invite one or two friends

to spend the day with us on the lake.

Up to this point in our boating summers...

Jacob had not had a turn.

Until this week.

Jacob has been best buddies with our next door neighbor

STEVEN

since we moved in almost 6 years ago.

They spend hours and hours

TOGETHER.

We decided it was time to have him go with us.

I absolutely love the pictures we took of him.

Just looking at them and seeing his face shows the amount of

PURE JOY

he had doing all the things we do everytime we go to the lake.

We love to tube:

SWIM:

 CLIFF JUMP:

 FISH:

 KNEEBOARD:

 AND BOATING ITSELF:

 So why would I label this post as

PEER PRESSURE?

Well our little Jakie isn't really fond of our boating days.

Usually he prefers going to a friends house instead.

Something the rest of us...

totally can't understand!

But on this day...

with his best friend looking on:

 Jacob not only tried NEW things...

but he loved

every minute of it!