Houseboat Vacation!

On Friday, we returned from one of the best vacations yet! We rented a 6-bedroom houseboat at Tablerock Lake for 4 nights. We had 15 people total- my mom and dad, Julie and Billy, Ethan, Susie and Mark and their kids and Jillian's boyfriend, Tyler. We did a whole lot of nothing on this trip!

We boarded the boat on Monday afternoon. We were planning to drive down on Monday morning, but on Sunday our power went out at home, so we decided to just load up the car and go. We had everything ready to go anyways, and when our house temperature rose to 84 in less than 2 hours we didn't really want to wait around for it to come back on! I called my dad and they got us a room at the hotel they were at and we got there by midnight.

The boat was amazing! We were on the Biltmore. We lucked out because we got the newest boat. We had a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, satellite TV...we didn't really do without anything!

The kids had a great time, and they were really good. I had a lot of anxiety about them being on a boat for a week, but we had a lot of help to watch them and they never put up a fight to keep their life jackets on! Yesterday we were talking about going somewhere and Brody said he wanted to go back to the houseboat!

Captain Jack!

Here are the kids eating breakfast on our first morning. I was really looking forward to drinking coffee up on that deck in the morning. I was really disappointed when I went outside the first morning to a sauna! It was so hot the first 3 days of our trip. Finally by Thursday, it was very nice all day. We had a little bit of rain on Thursday morning, but it didn't last long.

Here is the sunrise the first morning. Madelyn woke us up at 6:30 so I was able to catch it come over the hillside when I was in brushing my teeth. One of the best sunrises I've seen!

Thanks to the satellite TV and DVD player, it wasn't hard to get Brody to take some rest time. He took a few really great naps, but most of the time we just had him rest and watch TV. Madelyn on the other hand took 2 great naps everyday...we are so lucky!

Here's our set-up! We towed Mark's boat and the 2 waverunners. It was so nice to have them with us! Mark also set up a trolling line to catch fish! I don't think they caught any.

Papa driving the boat!

Swimming in the hot tub! The hot tub was cold for the first couple of days, so it was perfect for keeping us cool! Brody LOVED it!

Playing with the water from the faucet. There were 3 faucets with lake water. It kept the kids busy and cool!!!

Emily going wakeboarding!

Brody and Heath tubing! This was Brody's 1st time and he had a blast!

There they go!

Madelyn with Grandma.

Brody and his first fish! He had a lot of fun fishing.

Julie had this raft that we filled with water for the kids to play in. It kept Madelyn happy for hours! We were going to bring our small inflatable pool, but in the rush to leave on Sunday, we forgot it.

Brody and Daddy

Brody blowing the horn for Mark. It was the only button he was allowed to push...he was tempted to push others!

Brody and Tyler scouting out a place to beach it!

Madelyn and Jill playing the bongo!

Daddy and Brody fishing off the back deck.

Brody holding a fish! It took a couple before he was comfortable!

Some of the girls!

The kids splashing in the pool with Emily!

Brody driving the boat with daddy. I think he was getting sick of me taking pictures of him...towards the end of the trip he was telling me no more pictures!

"A bunch of floaters"

Madelyn loved playing with the hose! She is not afraid of water at all! She loved having us pour the water over her head. She even was ok with taking showers! There was no tub on the boat, so we didn't have any other choice.

Me and mom

Madelyn riding Billy and Julie's wave runner with daddy. She was dying to ride all week!

I had these koozies made for everyone and I painted names on the back.

Ethan brought his guitar and Madelyn liked to dance when he played!

Family pic! Excuse the no make-up...we didn't do our make-up all week! It was great!

Me, Madelyn and Jill

Julie and Billy floating!

 

And here is the entire album:

August 7, 2011