Vacation 2011 and Happy 5th Birthday!! (BIG PICTURE POST!!!!)

It’s been awhile since I’ve played around with Windows Live Writer, but I thought this combined post deserved a little more than blogger could for it!!

We had a WONDERFUL week of vacation which included Daniel’s birthday and visiting with some bloggy friends as well!

Last Friday we headed down to Westminster, SC and stayed near a river arm of Lake Hartwell in a nice townhouse, which we traded for through our timeshare.  While the fishing turned out not so good, so the company and the side trips turned out great!

Saturday Becky, Keith and Andrew headed up for the night and we had fun swimming and the boys played Geo Tracks forever it seemed, and they had the greatest time and played so well together!  Check them out!

Then Sunday Becky and family headed home and we chilled at the indoor pool.  Of course we did get one cute Father’s Day shot Sunday morning!!  Nothing like games on a Ipad to have a little fun with!

Last year Daniel had trouble propelling himself to the bottom of the pool to pick up sticks, but not this year – he could even get the bottom in 4-5 feet of water!  He still needs a little more strength to tread water for longer, but our child is a serious fish!!

Monday was much of the same and then Tuesday morning we headed into Atlanta and picked up Andrew for a day at Six Flags White Water!!  Andrew and Daniel had so much fun!!  Of course they don’t like waiting in line!!

Keith, Becky and Alex hosted us for the night and on Wednesday we celebrated Daniel’s 5th Birthday!!!  Troy, Daniel and I took off for the Georgia Aquarium and Centennial Olympic Park where we had lots of fun and Daniel ran through the fountains and had a blast!  Daniel’s favorite part of the aquarium was by far the touch tanks and he was determined to touch the shark as much as he could!

We followed up the aquarium and the park with a visit to Chuck E Cheese!  Becky and Andrew and Karyn, Norm and Iliya were able to join us!!  We had fun playing games, eating pizza, and of course being goofy!

           

Daniel insisted he could stay awake on the way back to our townhouse to open more presents, which surprisingly he did even though it was after 10 pm!!  The funny thing about the Teradactyl outfit (which was from my mom) was that earlier in the week when Daniel asked about eggs we told him he hatched from an egg (we were making up stories, which we had been doing all week) and that he was part Teradactyl and part alligator – a Tera-gator.  When he opened the gift, I said “See – even Grandma knows you are a Tera-gator” and he burst out laughing!!  My sister-in-law made the pillow – I love it!!

The rest of the week we visited waterfalls, fished, swam and had a good time!! The waterfall was fun because we didn’t know there was a swimming area below it.  Of course Daniel wanted to get in so Troy and he started walking towards it.  They didn’t realize there was a HUGE dropoff (as in Troy never felt bottom).  Suddenly they both went under and all I could do was watch from the side.  Troy got Daniel up over his head (even though Daniel was laughing) and got back to solid ground.  After that we figured we might as well swim with our clothes on!

We had such a great week with friends and with ourselves just relaxing and being able to swim and fish and explore!   Daniel’s signed up to start swimming lessons Monday but I’m starting to wonder if he really needs them!  This boy can seriously swim! 

I can’t wait for our next vacation!!!!