Sabrina's Family: Pine Mountain Lake Getaway

Toni's friend Al loaned us the use of his cabin on the shore of Pine Mountain Lake - and we had a fantastic time there! Thanks!! The entire cabin is themed with native american treasures and bears - we found this big friend bear (I dubbed him Barry), and had a great time playing with him.

Gabe held his own when wrestling Barry:

Me: Barry got the upper hand and I had to hollar "uncle"

Here he is trying to sneak up on Kaydie (who is so excited about 'borrowing' one of Gabe's toy cars that she doesn't even notice the enormous stuffed animal bearing down on her)

She buried her face in Barry's side while hiding from dad:

Then she pops up for a: Peek-A-Boo!

Kaydie was just haming in up for the camera while we played on the beach. We would put her hat on her head, and she would model for us - grin - laugh - and then toss the hat gleefully aside. Here's a shot of her actually wearing the hat... SO CUTE! She kept practicing her clapping and waving all day on Saturday.

Here she is with dad, just being silly!

We were just kicking back in the shade, waiting for dinner time to arrive (something about mountain air makes Kaydie ravenous! Okay, me too!)

All smiles! She loves the camera - because the camera loves her!

HI! (I can wave and clap now!)

Too cute for words...

And, of course, to complete the photo shoot: the serious pose

Toni, Pete and the boys took a ride out on a paddleboat. Me and Nana had taken Kaydie back to the cabin for her nap, so we missed out on the ride (which was just fine w/me, because my foot was all jacked up anyhow.)

Toni is swimming with Gabe and Kaydie
Pine Mountain Lake is very pretty.

FRIDAY EVENING/SATURDAY MORNING

Before we headed out to the Beach on Saturday, we spent the morning exploring. Tom stayed at the cabin while Kaydie took her morning nap. Alex, Gabriel and I had found a creek on Friday evening (pictures below), and we wanted to follow it down to the lake (okay, we really wanted to go pick the blackberries - and YES, we got covered with scratches! Of course the berries were worth it - they tasted GREAT!)

Check it out: Alex figured out how to walk on water!

and taught me!

We crossed under a road and walked through the huge drain pipe.
It was all fun and games as we 'levitated' and walked on the sides...

" Walk Like an Egyptian" & "Tally Ho"

Alex and his HUGE feet could barely pull it off....

Laughing and trying not to fall:

I was so amped up after climbing the walls (and singing in the drainpipe) that I wanted to leap about like a kid - so I did. You all know how crazy and silly I get... So I ran and jumped out of the end of the culvert - and did a really super heel click before gravity caught me and pulled me back to earth. I looked down, the ground appeared to be soft sand - Whoo Hoo! Easy Landing! Ummm... unfortunately, that soft sand turned out to be an incredibly thick slab of cement, and I landed all wrong and pulled a bunch of tiny muscles in my left foot.

Here I am putting on a good show for Gabe and Alex. It did hurt, but I was hamming it up a lot. (I guess we know where Kaydie got that trait!) I even took my shoe off and kissed it better.

On our trek, we found these rad bones. Nana says that I am morbid for taking a picture, but I don't care. We thought that they were really cool. Alex and Gabe totally figured out that these were deer bones because of the teeth (no sharp front teeth), the size and shape of the skull, and the fully furred front leg bone complete with hoof. We figured they must be the coyote's leftovers (we hoped that they weren't Barry's)

Gabe had so much fun crossing this log - I've probably got 10 pictures as he went back and forth and back and forth - - - we named it Gabe's Log Bridge