This Labor Day Weekend we packed up and drove about 55 miles west of Austin to Lake LBJ. I went out there in the spring with a group of girlfriends but we didn’t end up getting in the water – it was cold and one of us was pregnant and we just wanted to lounge and talk and get in the hot tub.
But this Labor Day Weekend, Nate’s friend texted him to see if he wanted to head out and rent a house together and zoom around on his newly-purchased boat with the kids. Yes!! We spent the weekend swimming and boating and tubing behind the boat and eating. It was a blast.
I have to brag on Nate for a moment here: he did 100% of the recipe planning, shopping, packing the food, unpacking it in the rental, and cooking all the meal. You guys!!! He has always been the “chef-y boo” between the two of us, but we’ll typically kind of work together to plan meals/pack/figure out what we’re eating on a long weekend getaway with the kids. But this time, I had some other commitments the day that we were prepping to leave and Nate just took the reins and planned 100% of the meals for everyone, and it was all SO good!! He’s amazing.
We got there Friday evening and the boys immediately wanted to started exploring! It was a giant house with a big two-story deck, a boat slip, and lots of indoor games like shuffle board, pool, and ping pong.
They very quickly made themselves at home. 🙂
And I ran around and snapped a few places of the house to show you before it got overrun with children and suitcases and swim stuff! It never looked quite this tidy the whole trip.
^ The upstairs loft.
We put both the kids in this room. Milo slept in the bed and Dayton was in a pack-n-play with a slumber pod over it. Both boys loved looking out the window and watching for boats at dusk before their bedtime!
^ The main living area…
…and the primary suite. Haha, I laughed so hard at the expansive amount of empty carpeted space. If I walked in this room at 8-years-old I’d probably choreograph some elaborate gymnastics routine with cartwheels and such.
Goodnight, boats!
Milo woke up with some EPIC bed head on Saturday morning!
And Dayton woke up just as sweet as can be. 🙂 We all had our breakfast and coffee and enjoyed a lazy morning.
^ I’m pretty sure Nate is over there making a double batch of coffee. And yes, we brought our entire coffee set up, including our counter-top coffee grinder, beans, kettle, scale, and clever dripper. Maybe in another life we won’t be so high maintenance.
We went out to explore while Nate’s friend got the boat ready.
Ahhh, I LOVE a lake first thing in the morning! It’s cool and breezy and quiet. I think the first morning of a vacation is one of my all-time favorite moments in life. It’s nothing but anticipation and everyone is just so excited!
I mean, these two boys were PUMPED to get on that boat!
Dayton was looking at the fish swimming around in the boat slip area. “More fish?”
I watched the kids while Nate packed up the cooler with some snacks and drinks, and then…
We went out on the boat!
This was the boys’ first time on a boat, and I had no idea what they’d think of it. We started off very slow and turned on some of their favorite music (Daniel Tiger – we were singing about “Pottys Everywhere” on the first day of this Labor Day trip and laughing so hard) and of course there were some special lake house snacks too. I always indulge junk food when I’m enjoying a boating day (Oreos and chips, specifically) and so of course I’m going to let my kids enjoy them, too!
Aww, hugs for his daddy. Dayton actually wasn’t scared at all – just wanted some morning hugs!
All smiles!
Milo was just so dang cute on the boat all weekend. He kept saying “I just want to stay here forever.” Me too, kid!
Once the boys were comfortable and we could all tell they 100% weren’t going to be scared of this thing, we picked up the speed a bit. Dayton LOVED going fast while munching on his Doritos!
Once the kids were comfortable on the boat, we decided to try out tubing.
Two things about this:
1) I LOVED tubing as a kid! Every summer a few families in my neighborhood would rent a boat and we’d go out to Lake Ray Hubbard in Dallas and spend all day out there. When we were really young we’d sometimes throw three of us on the tube and get going as fast as possible until we’d fly off the dang thing. But then I tried it again later (mid 20s, maybe?) and I was like “WHY DID I EVER LIKE THIS?!” So bumpy and it made me feel sick. Haha. So I was a bit nervous to try it again now.
2) I had no idea whether Milo would love it or hate it, but I figured he’d be very clear about it one way or the other.
Well…
^ Do you see his face?! THIS CHILD! He did not want to stop! We went very slow at first (too slow actually…we went underwater on the first try and Milo thought it was pretty funny) and then just hung out around 10 mph. But once he was good with that I asked if he wanted to go faster, and he said yes, so we picked up a bit of speed.
He turned to me and said, “I wish we could not ever go back to Austin and just stay here forever. *little laugh* But we can’t do that …right?”
🙂
Dayton and daddy watched until it was their turn.
Aww! Dayton looked SO tiny out there.
Turns out that Dayton loved it too! He approached with a little less caution that Milo. When Milo and I were on the tube, I told him to wave to the boat to say hi to daddy and Dayton and Milo said, “I can’t wave, I have to hang on to the handles!” And when it was Dayton’s turn he just lifted both hands off the handles and waved with both.
And then he laid down and took a nap. Haha. Nate kept asking him if he wanted to keep going and he’d say, “I want more!” I guess he just wanted to put his head down to keep the water from getting in his eyes?
Poor dog dog was very anxious about the boat.
See? Oreos! Always gotta have Oreos on a lake day!
When it was the big kid’s turn to surf behind the boys, Milo and Dayton took a little break in the shade and watched. They were fascinated!
I’m pretty sure I drank a bunch of top halves of sparkling water on this trip before…
…my drinks were always confiscated by this child.
Mid-day we escaped the hottest part of the day. Both boys took naps and I started a new book.
And then we hung out indoors from about 3-5 while it was still too hot to go outside.
They LOVED shuffle board! Totally played by all the rules, too. 😉
When I tell you Nate did an excellent job packing food/drinks, I mean he reeeaaally did! He drove around to a few breweries to get some of our favorites to bring on this trip. I sipped on an ABGB industry pils while the boys played nearby.
We went outside for a little happy hour of sparkling water (them) and beer (me). Per usual, Nate and I tag-teamed all weekend with who was responsible for the boys so that each of us could have our chance to sleep in, take naps, relax, read books. I really like co-parenting with Nate. He’s so stable and steady and amazing.
In the evening the boys jumped off the dock behind our lake house…
…and then we went back on the boat! They have these matching Mickey hats with their names on them. Our travel agent sent them to us after we booked our first Disney cruise, and they love them! I especially love that they wear them backward now, which is always a nod to Sayed.
Oreo crumbs on his face and a little excited smirk because we told him we’re about to jump in the water.
We boated to a quiet cove so the boys could jump off the back of the boat. They jumped a hundred times! These boys are both water babies.
Dayton was just living his best life.
Pretty sure both of them would have stayed in the water for three hours if I let them!
But it was getting late and we needed to head in, get the boys fed/bathed/in bed, and then eat our own dinners. Nate did all the cooking on this trip (have I mentioned how great he is??) so he got to work on that while I got the two hoodlums in bathed and in jammies.
^ But first, a few more pictures of them. Because they are both so beautiful.
The sunsets were gorgeous. We learned the hard way that it was midge season on the lake (little non-biting mosquito-looking insects) that literally swarmed the place in clouds. I mean, there were THOUSANDS of them inside our house. They pretty much sat on the ceiling, but they were gross. So at night we couldn’t go outside and enjoy the sunset and the cooler weather because of all those dang bugs!
I got one pic with my boy and then we ran inside before the bugs got too bad.
And y’all, that was our lake weekend! We essentially did the exact same thing on Sunday (and I have almost no pictures from that day), and then on Monday we packed up and came home. I love that we took this weekend to hang out with friends and family. I also love that the boys finally got to experience boating – we’ll do it many, many more times, I know it!
