Boating!

Chris started taking a 10 week Army funded computer course the Monday we got back from vacation. It is a huge blessing to take this class and he already has three certifications with more to come. This is a huge help for his career and it's all part of his work day and paid for by the army. Yes! Anyway, during the first week, his instructor told him about a mother of all computer stores in Rockville, MD - about an hour away. He really wanted to go. Things you usually can only get online were in the store there. It was like geek central, and he was in heaven. It turned out well for me too, because after months of not having a working laptop, I got one that day. In fact, I'm using it right now, and for the first time, I don't have my typical laptop complaints - hot bottom, annoying keyboard, cursor that randomly goes somewhere else on the screen messing up my typing, etc. Score!

Anyway, Chris really wanted to go to this store, but the idea of taking the whole family an hour away just to go to a computer store didn't sound that amusing. So I looked online to see what summer fun was in that area. I found a beautiful park with a large lake that had boat rentals. Perfect! We went there first and rented paddle boats. They were only $6 for a half hour rental which I thought was very reasonable. We had to get two boats though because they only allow 4 people to ride at a time. I was going to take the baby and Claire with me, but both older girls wanted to go with their daddy. Who could deny them that? So Amelia and I went out on one boat, and Chris, Claire and Maddie went out on another. It was a huge lake, and paddling solo made it kind of slow. I went out a little ways, but relaxed with my feet up a while. Ahh, summer relaxation! 

After our half an hour paddle boat adventure, we headed to the pontoon boat. They had a captain drive the boat and it was just $2 per person for the half hour ride. I actually liked this even better because we got to go the whole area on the lake. The captain pointed out beaver dams, turtles, and other wildlife. Because it moved considerably faster, the breeze was gorgeous! We had a great time enjoying the outdoors and the water. Ahhh.

Enjoying the shade by the captain.

Turtles!

After our boat adventure, we found some lunch, and headed to the computer store. We then had a quiet ride home with tired children sleeping in the car. Ahh. It was a fun summer adventure and we hope to go back there again sometime!

The following week, we continued our typical fun moments at home. I just wanted to share a few pictures to show some of those moments.

Maddie got her own goggles - Minnie Mouse!

Sister love!

They are quite the crew. :)

They played with their tents a lot that week. They wanted to sleep in them, and amazingly enough, they both did!

We went to a summer library program where there was a magician/ science guy. It was very entertaining, and Claire got to be an assistant!

Maddie looked adorable with her cow for family prayer that night. She was very reverent. I was not as I was grabbing my phone for a picture. :p Amelia partly photo bombed it though. Crazy baby crawling around the bed!

One day, Claire watched Amelia while I took a nap with Maddie. I guess Amelia was more tired than I realized because she fell asleep on the couch with Claire while Claire watched tv.