Fanning Family Vacation in Tennessee

Towards the end of July, we met up with the rest of the Fanning family at a lake house in Tennessee. We had a great time catching up and hanging out together for a week. As usual, there were LOTS of pictures taken. Here are a "few" of the highlights.

Here's the whole Fanning family...

Joe & Jenny were there with us for a couple days at the beginning of the week, with their dog Bliss.

The house was lake-front, but we had a couple hundred (steep) steps to go down to get to the lake. It was fun to be so close, and we went down to the lake to swim almost every day.

My dad brought his kayak and windsurf-board...

Our swimming dock was just perfect for throwing rocks. The girls (especially Julia & Clara) thought that was great fun, and wanted to do it over and over again.

The big girls were all sitting on the jet-ski dock, kicking their feet in the water, when Gracie kicked a little too hard and fell in the water (which was 8-10 feet deep right by the dock). Thankfully, Mom was able to grab her and pull her back out. Here's the pre- and post- rescue pictures! (We weren't down at the dock at the time, and Audrey was the first one to tell us what happened, but she didn't tell us much... she told us "Gracie fell in the water, and her hair was floating out behind her" (and she demonstrated what Gracie's hair looked like), but she didn't tell us much more than that. We had to get the whole story later from Mom & Dad...

We had lots of fun times playing Settlers, Blokus, and having some delicious meals around the table. Everyone took turns fixing meals, so it was fun to try all the different types of food that people made.

The grandkids all enjoyed having good quality time with Grandmama & Grandaddy!!

The grandkids are all born in pairs...

Chloe & Emma are the oldest. They both are turning 7 this year...

Next are Gracie & Audrey. They are both 4.

Julia & Clara are next. They were both almost 2 when we were together. This was the first time that they really played together. They had a great time, and it was fun to watch them interact.


And finally (for now), are James & Caleb. The first boy cousins were born this year. James is 4 months here, and Caleb is 1 month.

James and The Giant Peach...

Chloe & Gracie both had a great time playing with the babies. They had fun tickling them, talking to them, and showing them toys.

Here are some more "cousin" pictures. It's always fun to watch the dynamics when all these kids come together, and they really get along remarkably well (especially since they're running on less sleep, and more going on around them)

One day, we rented a jet-ski. We had a good time taking it out in the lake. At the very end of the day, I took it out with Chloe & Gracie, and flipped us off. I was doing a donut and went a little too fast, and it tipped us right off. The girls were a little scared at first, and it was a little complicated to get all 3 of us back onto the jet-ski. But by the time we were headed back to dock, we had decided it was a cool story to be able to share. Although, Gracie informed me that next time she was going to go out with Daddy, because he was a better driver...

On another day, we rented a pontoon boat. We had fun sliding off the slide (from the upper deck), and swimming next to the boat.

We also went to a nearby bridge where people jump into the lake. We had a good time jumping in from the bridge a few times!!

My Aunt Carol & Uncle Randy came to stay for a couple days towards the end of the week. Randy helped the girls carve initials into their walking sticks, and was definitely a big hit with our girls.

We took walks around the resort almost every day. It was a very hilly area, with lots of great views of the lake and lots of wildlife. We got to see deer on many of our walks (although we didn't see as many as we would have if we didn't have a bunch of running, talking kids with us...)

We had a great time, and were sad to have to leave to head back home...