Each year my mom coordinates a week long family vacation. As the years go by, I have to give serious kudos to her for her coordination skills. It is not easy to find a week that works well for the eleven adults we have become while also coinciding the trip with the full moon (mom's main criteria for weeks spent on the lake). So thank you, Mom, your effort does not go unnoticed!

A week past vacation, my skin is a little drier, my tan a little faded, and I'm already hoping to find another excuse to make the trip again before the end of the warm seasons, but I wanted to collect a few of the memories we shared last week somewhere, I figured this was as good of a place as any. Although this vacation didn't really feel the same as years passed (not once did I see any family member jump off of Chimney Rock), it was not short of memorable moments.

• "Pooh Kat". #thebrookiecookie, aka Brooklyn Bindewald's alter ego. "I'm not a homey, I'm a Pooh Kat." Brooklyn is my three year old niece, also debatably the most charismatic of my sisters' kids, clearly. 
• Carly Simon's "Coming Around Again" album on repeat. Well, as much 'repeat' as an actual vinyl record can allow; nonetheless, by the end of the trip David and the Matts (two of my sisters are married to men with the name Matt) were singing along with the rest of us. I would have bet money on the fact that our jamming to Carly could have jived the universe enough for her to make a comeback. And then she did, with T. Swift this past weekend in Massachusetts to preform "You're So Vain."  
• Luke growing an entire head taller from last year and actually maintaining his coordination skills on the wake board. (see the short video I put together for him from still photos -- practicing "action shots," but I still have some work to do in that department.)
• Mackenzie Nicole, my niece and the most athletic little seven year old you may ever meet, also held her own on the wake board. I had the joy of coaching her in the water and that little girl had some serious determination. 
• Bring Married had it's perks this trip too. David and I shared quite a few hours in the boat around the lake, me with my camera and him playing captain. A few of those pictures you will find below.
• 360. Yeah, that's right, I completed a 360 on the wake board (multiple time) without falling on my face. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed with myself. 

Aren't these houses pretty fantastic?

xo, jmc.