Kiser Family Vacation

Greetings from the "beach" (Smith Mountain Lake)

Summer of 2008 Matt and I had just gotten married, and life was very busy for may parents and my sisters (what am I saying? Life is always busy for them...!)

Matt and I had just moved into our house in Roanoke. Someone (I do not remember who) got the bright idea to vacation at our house. That way Matt would not need to take off more vacation than he already had for the honeymoon, etc. Also it would be a new location for them, no hotel fees, no eating out (or at least not much), and we could go to Smith Mountain Lake.

So in 2008 we went to the lake for Saturday all day. And it was wonderful. We rented paddle boats, canoes, we swam, read, and laid on the beach. Since it is a man made lake (a very large man made lake) there are no huge waves, no undertow, no salt water. The kids seemed to enjoy it much more than the actual ocean. It had many pluses all around.

We enjoyed it so much that each year for the first weekend in August we have had the family return. Then we spend Saturday at the beach. This time however, we had an extra member along. It was Grace's first time with sand and large bodies of water (larger than a pool).

She seemed to really enjoy the sand, especially when a puddle was dug out for her to sit in and enjoy. She did eat some...not much (at least not to my knowledge). The plus side is that she did not complain about eating it, so it must not have been too bad.
She really loved the water. Either mom or I had her in her bumble bee float and we would walk or run her around the shallow part of the lake. She would stick her hand in and feel the water as it ran by. Or she would put her head to the side and just watch the reflections. Or, she would just squeal because she was so happy and excited.
I think that you can see the joy on this face. I have a feeling that we have a little beach baby on our hands. She really was wonderfully content on this trip. I was a bit scared how she would take to these very odd surroundings and since we were about 45 minutes away from home we were stuck there whether she was happy or not. But she did do great.
Then it was time for lunch and being the child that she is, she had a little of everything that everyone around her was eating. Nibbles of sandwiches, pudding, cookies, potato chips, yogurt, you name it and she was getting a taste of it. It helped that she spend most of her time sitting in the middle of the table going from person to person "begging" for food.
Back to the beach and time to play on the sheet with toys. We had a sheet set up so that she could get away from the sand for a short bit. We also had a playpen set up with a dark sheet draped over so that when it was time for her nap she could go to sleep there with some shade and the few breezes blowing through the mesh walls. The playpen worked wonderfully and so did the sheet. It was great to have a place to give her some shade since there was none around.
Well the day ended around 5:00 pm. We were all hot and tired and ready to make our way back to the cars.

Till next time.