FINALLY!! A GREAT WEEK AT THE LAKE!

As I said in the last post, the past two summers we've been to the lake, it's rained cats and dogs. And last week looked iffy for a while too. We stopped in OKC for a very, very quick visit at church. The youth was having a "water" night from 5:30-7:00ish. We were pushing it to be there by 6:00 and doing pretty well when all of a sudden, traffic on I-35 came to a complete stop! As far as I can see, there are cars....not moving. It reminded me of the mass exodus from Houston during Hurricane Rita. Then I see the sign "Road Work next 10 miles" Oh No! This will delay our trip probably several hours, we'll miss friends at church completely, and should probably just head over to the lake and forget OKC. Nonsense. I was raised in southeast Oklahoma and know the back roads like the back of my hand. Okay, it's the part of my hand I haven't looked at in 25 years or so, but I do have GPS in my truck. So, I say to Jordan, who's driving "take the Wynnewood exit son, we're going on an adventure". I hear groans from the backseat. So, off we go on a road I haven't been on since probably 1982. Clint's girlfriend was with us and it gave her a chance to see rural Oklahoma. Heck, it gave my sons a chance to see rural Oklahoma too! We made it to the church by 7:15 and were able to catch a few friends still there. We then drove by our old house. It looked beautiful...happy. The hydrangea I planted in 2001 was huge! We drove down the street to the bridge that led to nowhere when we lived there (now, it's a road to more houses). It was a place of adventure for the little boys and only a ball game whistle away. Funny, I whistled at them in St. Thomas when they couldn't see us, and they knew immediately it was me (Bible story here, but I'm in a hurry). Anyway, we enjoyed seeing the neighborhood, got to our friend's house, had another bff over for a quick visit, then hit the road for the 2 hour trip to Lake Eufaula. We arrived at 11:00 pm...we left our house in Houston at 11:00 am. We were tired and ready to go to bed.

Monday morning we hit the lake to find windy conditions creating some nasty little waves. Not good for wakeboarding. No worries though, we're at the lake with our friends. That night, a HUGE thunderstorm hit complete with thunder and lightning. Wow, what a show God put on for us!!! Bad news though....rain was supposed to continue thru Tuesday. I'm not one to pray for rain to avoid us because I figure God knows more about the weather than I do, so we ventured out after the rain intending to stay near the dock in case it began to rain or lightning. It didn't happen!!! We looked at the weather radar before we left and there was rain heading straight for us. I don't know where it went, but it didn't rain a single drop anymore that day! It was a wonderful day! Here's some pics for you:

Charlett, the amazing boat driver

Clint, looking good

Clint, looking not so good (He's wakeskating wearing special shoes, not wakeboarding)

Jordan, looking good (and very serious)

Jordan, looking not so good (also wakeskating)

Tuesday, Jordan and Bobby were able to take wakeboarding lessons from a couple of pros that live on the lake. Really, they are pros that compete. They could do all the cool tricks. By the end of the day, Jordan could land the jump across the wake and Bobby landed a couple of flips! They thought it was so cool to be on board the super fancy schmancy boat!

Wednesday, we took a drive over to Robber's Cave Park. Rumor has it Jesse James hid out in the mountains, hiding from "the law", hence the name. We've been going there for years but Hillary had never been. So we went and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and hiked and climbed mountains (there's a trail, it's not really mountain climbing). Here's a couple of pics from there:

One of the first years we went there, Jordan got stuck on this rock and I had to climb up and get him. I told him he was on his own this year!

How sweet is that? Clint and Hillary

Jordan and Bobby. Maybe later, I'll go thru old pics and find one of the first ones of them standing here. They were about 8 or 9 then.

Bobby climbing up

And finally, this pic is not of a sunset, but of a SUNRISE! The last day we were there, we were on the lake at 6:55 am! You should have seen the fish jumping!

Later this week, I will post about the one problem we had and also post a picture I took especially for my friend Linda. You will laugh!

Happy Monday everyone!