the rosier rundown: Lake Anna ~ Sunday

This year, we decided to try out a different lake (last year and the year before, we went to Smith Mountain Lake). We also added a few more people (Brandy, Iad, Carter, Lea, and April) to our vacay this year (the Richelsens came with us for a few days last year). The new location was Lake Anna, which is East of us and mostly South and a little West of the DC area (where our friends are from).

Before I get into what we did each day of our trip (in multiple posts, by the way), here are a few highlights of the week:

We must have watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" 482 times before the week was over. The television service at the lake house was terrible, with only a few channels; none of which were kid channels. So we went to the local grocery store in the beginning of the week to see if they had any DVDs for sale (the local Redbox didn't even have any kid movies). We got 3 DVDs and told the twins that they could watch them during quiet times and in the early morning if they wanted each day. We watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" first and they absolutely fell IN LOVE with it! They wanted to watch it over and over and over again. It's pretty cute.
Paxton really thrived when everyone was there the first few days. He REALLY seemed to like having all of those people around. He was a different kid. He kept walking up to everyone, talking and babbling a lot, and just acting older. It's hard to explain, but Wes and I kept looking at one another and commenting on his bubbly demeanor.
We went to the state park beach several times during the week. For some reason, Vivian kept calling it "the little pool." We're not sure why because it wasn't little and it wasn't a pool. Whatever.
Gavin tried to get into the water every chance he could. He even would "fall in" by "accident" so that he could get wet. He had a handful of crying fits during the week when we told him that it was time to go or get out of the water. Poor kid.
Paxton became mildly addicted to fruit snacks on this trip. He hadn't had any before last week, but due to the convenience of giving him whatever we were giving the twins and the fact that I bought a huge 175-piece box of them from Costco before we left, he had some. And he LOVED them. He kept squeaking and barking at the cabinet where they were housed asking for some.
We took A LOT of baths and showers during the week. Every time we went swimming in the lake (which was at least twice a day), we did a rinse and then every night, we all took a full-blown shower with soap and shampoo. There was a lot of water involved. And Gavin cried when he had to get out of the tub, too.

Day One: Sunday

On Sunday, we met the Richelsens, the Alhassanis, and April at our lake rental around 4pm. We rented a 4 bedroom, 3 full bath house nestled on a little peninsula of land. Every single room in the house had multiple floor to ceiling windows so that you could always have a view of the lake. The view was incredible.

This is just the view from the kitchen:

All together, there were 13 of us who started off the vacay: April, Steph, Tony, Nick, Brandy, Iad, Carter, Lea, and our five-person fam.

The three little kids played inside while the three older kids immediately begged to go play outside. Then, we made little pizzas and celebrated Carter's fourth birthday with some presents, birthday crowns, glow stick swords, and cupcakes.

Nick got to try watermelon for the first time, but was not impressed. At all.

Wes took the kids outside for some poppers, which they all thought was super cool.

Then, Aunt April took the three big kids out back for some playtime in the sand. Of course, Gavin "fell in" lake and was soaked for the rest of the evening.

Wes and Uncle Tony helped the big kids catch lightening bugs while the little ones were put down for the night. By the time we got all of the big kids to bed, we were all exhausted. But we also had wine, cheese, and chocolate waiting for us. So it was all good.