Everybody was Kung Fu fighting....

Well, actually they are practicing karate.  Whatever it is...it's cute!  (And tough!)

Chop~
Laurie

And the story continues....

To finish up our summer adventure, I take you back to Lake Burton.  After Deedee and Tony headed back to Alabama, our next visitor was my longtime friend, Nicole.  She came up for a couple of days to soak up some fun and sun.  But something that ALWAYS happens when she visits is...rain!  We laugh, because it never fails that we get a rain shower when she decides to spend a few days at the lake.

Well, we did have one nice day while she and her girls visited,so we headed back to Helen for a day of tubing.   Unfortunately, the river level was a bit low, so we kept getting stuck on rocks and the flow was sloooowwwww, but the kids had a blast and have asked when we can do it again.

After the girls left (much to Sam's dismay) John finally made it up and helped us finish out the summer break!  We had a lot of tubing! 

Some more hiking.... (Lily was sporting the new hike/flotation look!)

Lily happened upon this "lil buddy" on our hike in to the river.  She couldn't just walk by....

And a lot of boat sitting!

Not much more to say than "Ahhhhhhh........"

Blessed~
Laurie

Breaking News...

Sam and Lily Clare started back to school today and were soooo excited!

My handsome fifth grader!

My beautiful first grader!

Zac was not about to be left out of the action...even though it 

was 6:45 in the MORNING!!!!

Feeling the love!

It's gonna be a great year~

Laurie

Living the lake life...

As the summer started coming to a close (well, on the school calendar anyway), we knew that we needed to get up to the lake house and spend some quality time on the water.  So, the kids and I headed up and pretty much installed a rotating door for all of the guests we had!

We started our two week stint with my mom joining us for a few days.  We had some great time to relax together and journeyed into the neighboring town of Helen.  This is an alpine themed village that has a lot of things for the family to do.  We started our day in Helen with a picnic in the local park.

Then, the kids tried their hands at a fun game of mini-golf.

On our way back to the cabin, we stopped and tested our luck at panning for gold and gems.

Unfortunately, we did not become millionaires...but the kids had a blast and found some pretty rocks and stones!

On our last day together, we spent some time at the FAMOUS...."Goats on the Roof"!  Just kidding; I wouldn't expect anyone to have ever heard of this crazy place!  But, the name says it all; there are goats on the roof.

After feeding the goats and snacking on some yummy ice cream, Nana and Poppy went on their way back to the big city!  (Where you will not find goats on a roof! Ha!)

Hey, those goats look familiar!!

The next day brought a whole new group of visitors -- Deedee, Tony, Madison and Chandler!  This was their first visit up and we had lots of fun!  From shopping, to hiking, to swimming and boating; the kids really loved having their cousins around!

One day we hiked down to the Chattooga River.

One of my favorite places!  It is beautiful! 

After a little picture taking and lingering on the rocks, we came across this little fella!  Needless to say, we stayed away from his "home" from that point on!

Me and my swim buddy! 

Cousin time! 

This picture cracks me up!!!  Zac loves playing in the river and jumping from rock to rock -- but here, he lost his footing and couldn't make it over in one jump.  The look on his face is priceless!  **He did make it across and went back and forth about 100 more times!

O.k., so this is the blog post that is never ending!  I'll give y'all a break and fill you in on our last few days in the next post.

To be continued~
Laurie