We were back at Mimi's lake house at the end of July to have a little cousin/family time. We did a similar weekend last year and this year we couldn't wait to get back out there and do it again.
Everyone trickled in on Thursday and Friday and we had a full weekend of swimming, eating, tubing and laughing. All of these kids have a fantastic time together and I'm so glad that we make a point to get the cousins together frequently throughout the year. I love all the memories that we are making together.
One incident to note - on Sunday morning, we were going out on a boat ride. The mamas were inside getting stuff together - snacks, sunscreen, towels, etc! Thomas (with Ryan on his lap), MaSha and Zack were out on the boat and the kids were swimming off the dock. William ran out there from the house and without thinking jumped into the lake....without his puddle jumpers. The adults saw it - thank goodness - and Zack did not hesitate to jump in (socks and all!) and got William out of the lake. He was probably in the water for 5 - 10 seconds. Everyone was calm when I came out a few minutes later schleping all the stuff, but I noticed that Zack was soaking wet and that's when I got the story. I was totally shocked. Even though he knew the rules about always wearing a puddle jumper, I don't think William even realized that he didn't have a puddle jumper or life jacket on but that incident scared him terribly. He kept talking about when he "drowned", despite our attempts to tell them that he was in the water, but did not drown! And yes, he told everyone at school on Monday that he drowned at the lake. Zack has been promoted to hero in our house and William still talks about it a lot. It was a big wake up call for us and our level of vigilance around water. I am so incredibly THANKFUL that we have a crazy story to tell, and not a tragic tale. I really don't want to dwell on it here on the post, but it was a big concern and it was not taken lightly.
Here are some pictures of the weekend:
Captain Thomas and First Mate Stokes
My beautiful boy: lake hair, don't care!
Leece!
It's so hard to stay awake! He was sleeping while sitting up after a long time on the tube.
Cool farm right on the lake. We loved seeing the horses
MaSha with Madison and Ryan
Madison and her flamingo float
Thomas on the paddleboard with Leece and Stokes
Beautiful sunset
All the cousins - biggest to smallest Taylor, Anna, Leece, Stokes, Ryan, William and Madison
Good looking crew!
Tara with Madison
Tubing time
MaSha with Anna, William, Stokes and Taylor
Swimming at the dock
Porch swingin' time
This boy loves the lake
Our hero, Uncle Zack, with Ryan
Tribe
View of the lake house
As a thank you gift to Carole, we got a watercolor made for her! Comment here if you want a link to my friend's Etsy page. She makes these & is incredibly talented!
On the eve of their 5th birthday, I'll post these little videos I recorded a few weeks ago.
I'm going to start doing these little interviews periodically. They will serve several purposes:
so that I will be forced to do videos (I'm very bad at videos and only take pictures 99.99% of the time)
I will have some real visibility to changes - both growth related and likes/dislikes as the boys get older
the most important - I will have a video of their sweet little voices! Please don't ever change!!!!
I've had my list of questions made for a while. Not sure why it took so long to actually complete the videos! When I {finally} got around to doing these, I didn't have Thomas around to help me with Ryan's video, so he'll have a video on the next go round (maybe in 6 months or so).
Lately, William has said that he's "scared" in his room (monsters in the closet and all) and will get out of bed and sneak down the hall, well past the time we put him to bed and tucked him in. On these nights, he will tiptoe out into the hallway and lay down in the hall over the family room, where Thomas and I are usually watching TV or talking. A lot of times we won't know he's there until we turn off/mute the TV and hear little footsteps running down the hall back to his room to try to avoid being caught, or when we are coming upstairs to bed and see a sleeping little guy on the floor in the hall around 10 or 10:30 PM. He seems to be turning in to a night owl and is rarely tired around 8 or 8:30 when we're trying to get everyone in bed. Here are a few pictures from when he fell asleep in the hall.
My view coming upstairs to go to bed
Is that comfortable?!?! LOL
*Edit: at the time when this is actually getting posted, he has been doing a lot better about staying in bed. There may have been some threats to get him to stay there, but it's working....
We were once again in attendance for this summer's Dabo's Ladies Clinic. My FAVORITE! This is such an awesome event. Remember the last few years's clinics?? Check them out: 2016, 2017.
The 2018 Clinic started out with a little drama. Soooo many people missed out on tickets when they went on sale, US INCLUDED! It literally sold out in less than 10 minutes. Brittney was online and trying to enter our info when the site crashed and then when she started over, the event was sold out. I was really bummed. I had given up on the idea of going, when we got a surprise email. The powers that be decided to open it back up for more people to buy tickets. They must have gotten a lot of complaints. I was ecstatic!
So this year was a bit different. The event went from 1,200 people to over 3,000. That's quite a jump! It used to be in the football complex and this year it was in Littlejohn Coliseum, our basketball arena. I was worried that we wouldn't get the same access to the coaches and players as we have in years past.
Although it was different, it was still tons of fun! We did get access to our people and got an inside look into what makes up Clemson football. A cool addition this year was that Holly Rowe, an ESPN sideline reporter, was a speaker. In all honesty, she was never my favorite reporter with ESPN, but hearing her speak completely changed my mind about her. She was incredibly engaging, funny, and real. I have a lot of respect for her and she's definitely moved up in my list of "favorites"!
Pictures from the day:
Carole and me - bright and early in the AM!
With my boy, Tyler Grisham!
(former player)
With my boy, DMAC, DeAndre McDaniel
(former player)
Tigers for Life
With Tanner Muse
Xavier Thomas
ETN! aka Travis Etienne
DaQuan Bowers, former player
KJ Henry
Albert Huggins
Tee Higgins and Mario Goodrich
Defense drills! Including our famous D-Line (Fantastic Four, Big Cats!)
Isaiah Simmons
Cornell Powell
Diondre Overton
This was so sweet! Rashard Hall and DaQuan Bowers were helping this sweet old lady up the stairs. It was a moment of decorum on display!
The Bodybuilding Competition has begun These are the "heavyweights"
Bodybuilding Competition finals
Cooking demonstration with the Nutrition team
Dexter and Christian cooking omelets
After the program in Littlejohn was complete, we had the opportunity to go to the stadium, rub the Rock, run down The Hill and then meander over to the Reeves Football Complex to take a self-guided tour.
Tribe with The Rock! Susan, me, Carole and Brittney
Time to run down The Hill
Tribe Selfie
Run down The Hill with me...
Susan, me and Brittney
With the winner of the Body Building Competition
The Davis twins: Judah and JD #JudgesDNA
We found the Body Building Competition Runner-Up He was so funny!!!!
One of my faves - Adam Choice
With the National Championship Trophy There's a glare on the case, making it hard to see- but it's there, and it's beautiful.
Bowl game wall
All In Rock #1
Getting an autograph from Austin Bryant
With AB!
With Coach Venebles
Tiger Waterfall Wall
Carole and me at Trevor Lawrence's locker
Cle + ETN
Us at "Big Game Hunter"'s locker Hunter Renfrow
Great advice!
"Put us in, Coach!" We're ready to go.
With new kicker, BT Potter
The Graveyard of Top 25 wins
Our favorite tombstone :)
Hope we can make it to the Ladies Clinic next summer as well! It's always a good time!
