A favorite place

One of my very favorite places to go is Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri. I've talked about it before on my blog and here I go again! :) It's a BEAUTIFUL place to go to stay in cabins and play on the lake and it is a tradition to go every summer with the Austin family.

It was extra special this year because James and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary here, this is also where James proposed to me 9 years ago!

We also got to go to K-Kountry, one of the Kanukuk kamps, to pick up our nieces, Faith and Adelynn. They had been at camp for two weeks, so they were very excited to see family! It was a great time and we are already looking forward to next year. (It takes a year to recover from that 10 hour car ride)!! :)

Here are a TON of pictures...

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was our stop in Fayettville to see precious Katie. We were college roomies at Baylor and have been friends since our freshman year there. This girl is amazing and I am so thankful for her friendship! This year was extra special because we got to meet the newest member of the Rowe family, Colson!

Holding baby Colson! Notice Parker...is this what it will be like when I have two??

What a blessing!

And here are our boys!!

Thank you Katie for two wonderful hours at your house!

Arriving at Big Cedar

This is the spot where James proposed to me 9 years ago!

Parker and his Uncle Luke waiting while we register

That evening we rented a boat, here are Ann and Katherine in the front.

Fun times!

Check out that wind blown hair, so cute!

Tired boy!

This is Parker on the boat last year, amazing what a difference a year makes!

Jim was our fearless boat driver! :)

Here I am doing one of my all time favorite things, slalom skiing!!

Here's Luke tearing it up behind the boat! He and James are excellent skiers and so fun to watch!

Katherine and "Bubba"

Meredith holding down the fort! :)

What a great evening we had on the lake!

Parker is always happy on the boat, just like his mommy! :)

Sunday was family time at the pool until it was time to go to Kanukuk to pick up Faith and Adelynn.

Parker and Blake had lots of fun in the kiddie pool.

On Sunday evening, we drove into Branson to pick up Faith and Adelynn from Kanukuk. They were at K Kountry and it was so much fun to see what all they had been doing for two weeks! I can't even begin to describe to you how hot and humid it was. The heat index was 105 and we started sweating through our clothes the second we got out of the car!

Walking down through camp. The cabins are the big red barns you see.

This pic is priceless...Faith and Adelynn came running up to us with big hugs and big news that they both accepted Christ at camp! Many tears followed!!

Sweet girls!

My hot baby...this is right before a major melt down. He looks so innocent here, like he couldn't be capable of such crying and screaming! :)

Adelynn showing off her cabin.

Once we got to camp, the campers got to show off their specialty sport. F and A both did gymnastics. Faith is the one on the right in turquoise.

Have I mentioned how HOT it was?? Can you see my baby's sweaty hair?? Oh, and there is no air conditioning at camp, fans only!

Here is Parker wanting to show off his skills.

So Faith introduces us to her camp friend, Halle. I had Halle when she was in kindergarten when I taught in Highland Park, small world!! I actually saw four former students at camp!

The next day we had more lake time! Sweet Meredith hanging out on the tube with Blake. He just wasn't too sure about actually getting in the water.

Adelynn learned to ski last summer and we got Faith up this summer! We now have two more skiers in the fam!

We found a great cliff to jump off of, this is James thinking he can fly! :)

Katherine got nicknamed "aqua woman" because she wore her green goggles at all times and swam like a fish. This is a child who didn't care for the water that much last summer!

My big man coming out of the lake. Parker gets in and out of that lake like he's been doing it forever, so thankful!!

Our last evening there was our anniversary. James took me out to a nice restaurant there that overlooked the lake, it was perfect and so much fun to eat out just the two of us!

Faith kept Parker very entertained while we loaded up!

He just lights up with Faith! :)

Time to say goodbye. We were on the road by 8:30 that morning to tackle the LONG drive back home. See you next year Big Cedar!