We had the most AMAZING vacation weekend! Sharon and Mike (shirttail family on the Nielsen side) invited us out to their property in Ephrata. They've been inviting us out for about a year now, but just never worked for us to join. This time we were able to go, and goodness - we love it out there! Our cousins Mike & Tara (with kiddos) were able to come out too to join in the fun. Peter and I did NOT want to go home when Monday came. We hope it works out for us to go ahead before summer's end.
Here are the highlights from our trip:
The View: The view was amazing. A bit different than what we usually see when we go on vacation (i.e., forrest). The sunrises and sunsets were gorgeous. Neighbors were in a far distance, which was really nice.
The Pool: We spent most of our time here. We would get here when they opened and stay until the late afternoon, only to return after dinner to let the kiddos do some night swimming. All of us definitely got lots of color at the end of each day. In the evening, all the kiddos were so exhausted that we didn't mind if they zoned out in front of the tv while we made dinner.
Poor Sharon - she got a good burn the day before! Here's Tara helping her out the aloe LOL.
The Food: We are all about the food. Every meal was delicious (especially Mike/Sharon's carne asada)! So many great conversations and laughs during each meal.
Hiking: we went out for a "hike". Separate post on this to come, but here's our family pic from it.
Four Wheeling: Mike had one of his four wheelers up and running. The men folk took turns riding, as did some of the kiddos.
Michael taking a turn.
Peter going to take his turn
Gavin's turn
First Drive!: Since we were on back roads from the property to the clubhouse where the pool was, we decided to let Clifford take a drive - for the very first time!!! Oh, Peter and I had so much fun with this kid. Clifford admitted it was a little harder than he thought it would be.
Emily took a turn too!
And here are just some miscellaneous pics showcasing the good times we had.
These four were constantly zoned out on the couch like this after each full day of swimming.
Ahhh, the memories these kiddos will have to look back on! If they only knew how spoiled they all truly are to have these fun times to talk about on at future get-togethers ;)
