Lake Lure

A few weeks ago we took a road trip as a family to Lake Lure, North Carolina with our good friends, the Barrows. It was the longest car ride my kids had ever taken. Jaci and I went up with the kids (7 kids aged 6 and younger) on Wednesday and Adam and Ken met us on Thursday night. The ride up wasn't too bad, although it did include a 1.5 hour stop at McDonald's.

We got a killer deal on a time share at a beautiful resort. The kids were so happy with our "new house". In fact, Abraham still talks about it. He says he wants to go there for his birthday.

Amelia has been Rex's "girlfriend" since birth. They are good buddies and had fun hanging out together. 

 The big kids loved having a 4 day long play date. They all get along so well, it was perfect. Jaci and I make an awesome tag team Mom.

The Barrows have a little boy, Alex, staying with them for awhile so he got to come with us. The kids all just loved on him.  It was so cute. They love him. Just today at church, Abraham saw Alex and said, "Mom, Alex is so cute I want to borrow him."

 Words can't describe how much I love little Gracie. She loved having her picture taken and looking at all the pictures on the iPod. Every time I looked at the iPod she'd changed my cover picture. I loved it.

 Here is Abraham reading to Amelia.

 Does it get any cuter than these two babies in a wagon? I think not.

Tyler wanted to watch Grace play a game and so he climbed up and put his arm around her. How sweet is that. I really can't say enough how awesome all the kids got along. It made the trip so enjoyable. 

 The kids were SO excited when the Dads arrived on Thursday night. As amazing as Jaci and I were to take all those kids to the lake and pool, we were really glad to see them too!

 Can anyone guess what we had for breakfast this day? Don't judge me, it was vacation!

 We stopped at this gas station and it made me laugh. The pumps were so old.

 With the guys there to help, we went to visit Chimney Rock. Here is Jaci and I with the kids (Amelia was strapped to Adam, so she's not in the picture).

 You took an elevator up to this beautiful look out. Seriously, the pictures do not do it justice.

 I was a little freaked out one of the kids was going to find a way over the fence railings.

 Then we decided to take a hike to the waterfalls. It probably wasn't the best choice we ever made. Somehow we all made it alive though. I LOVE this picture of these cute kids posing.

 My favorite thing about this picture is the random couple kissing at the bottom of the waterfall.

Jaci is supermom and she and Adam stayed with all the kids one night so I could surprise Ken. 

 Surprise Ken with what, you might ask? I found out the Lake Lure was where Dirty Dancing was filmed and it just so happened that the weekend we were there was the 3rd Annual Dirty Dancing Festival. So, I scored us tickets to the screening of the movie at the lake where it was filmed. How cool is that?

 Here was the view as we waited for the show to start. It was gorgeous. It is such a beautiful place.

 Somehow we didn't get any pictures at the lake or the pool, but we spent a lot of time there. The pool had a lazy river and the kids loved it. Abraham and Grace especially seemed to enjoy floating along. It was such an awesome trip with awesome people and was a much needed vacation. I think Rex sums up how we all felt at the end though!