Our First Family Vacation!

Yah! We finally made it out for our first family vacation! It was soo much fun and so beautiful. Chad's mom and dad have a lake house in Lakefield, MN. I have never seen anywhere so beautiful.  To make it even better we planned our trip to be there the same week as Ashleigh Justin and the kids. Payton loved playing with his cousins. He loved just watching them and trying to imitate what they were doing. He is much more independent when seeing other bigger kids around. I am so glad I got tons of pictures, I will try not to go overboard but we found a steal of a deal on a new canon camera at Mall of America and Chad went camera crazy. There is so many good ones I'll try to limit myself(:

Chad's favorite part of the trip was the fishing by far.  They went out fishing almost every day and caught at least 15 fish per day. (Now that's my kind of fishing!) I tried to fish here and there but I didn't have near the luck they did. Here is Dad when he caught a Carp fish. We loved making fun of the lips on this one!

Here is my macho husband throwing his line out(:

 Just a cute photo of my Lil Pumpkin!

Payton loved holding onto Ethan. Everytime Ethan would sit down next to him he would grab his arm. It was so cute Justin said that one night he asked Ethan what his favorite part of the day was and Ethan replied "Playing with Payton, he is my favorite cousin." (little does he know that's his only cousin, still cuter than ever)

 Payton also loved getting Daddy time in. This is prob

the most time they have had together since Payton was born. You can tell they had a blast!

On one of our outings we went over to Spirit Lake. We went to Wal-Mart to try and find a raft but being Forth of July week they were sold out. So Mom and Dad came up with us just getting a blow up mattress and setting sail. Low and Behold IT WORKED! 

Payton loved watching everyone on the beach.

Here was our attempt at our first full family photo (took about 10 tries lol)

And here is just us!

I love my Lil boy!

On Friday we went down and watched the Okoboji Parade.

It was SO hot, but the kids loved it. Poor Ellie fell asleep on

the way but we made sure she was up in time for the candy being thrown..

 Cute bath time..

Tell me this doesn't belong on a postcard! (oh and thats

Justin out there posing on the canoe haha)

aww..

Thanks to this nice guy letting us borrow his canoes we got some time out on the lake then on Saturday morning Justin, Ashleigh, Chad, and I went out on the river. We had so much fun. It was about a two hr trip. The water wasn't to deep which I liked until we came up to some "rapids" (rocks showing through the water) and we almost dumped the canoe! I screamed thinking we were about to loose our brand new camera lol

One of Payton (And Ellie's) favorite things to do was ride in the wagon.

Ellie would say "Ellie push, Payton sit" She is just to stinkin cute!

 It didn't take long for Chad to get Payton out on the tractor.

I couldn't get a pic of Payton smiling because he was to busy exploring.

Smores!! This was so fun. I haven't had Smores' since I was a

kid. Ellie just wanted the marshmallows. She didn't even care

about the chocolate! She even ate it off the stick like a acorn on the cob..

Paytons "smore" 

Ethans loving these as well!

We tried almost ten times to get this picture right and every time

it chopped our heads off. finally we gave up and told everyone it looked great haha.

This is so neat. They have a Bald Eagles nest in they're back yard. I

didn't think much of it until I found out how rare this was. They are

both beautiful and just kind of mean looking. Chad got some great pictures

of them out in the canoe!

Of course we couldn't leave this amazing scenery without

getting some cute photos of Chad and I. ( I wan't thrilled due to my

wardrobe but Chad didn't give me a say so. This is by far Chads favorite photo of us.

I think this ones cute.

After the weather cooled down we took Payton out for a ride.

He got a kick out of it. He loved splashing the paddle in the water!

On Sunday we went to a family reunion, It didn't take Little

Ellie long to find herself a wagon to pull Payton in!

Boy Chads hair got long!

We had cake and ice cream and Ellie decided to try and

eat all her ice cream at once.. with a fork.. lol

A few days while we were there Chad, Dad, and Justin worked

on finishing the basement. Chad thought he was so tough with power tools.

And this is the sweetest little baby ever. Little Mason is the newest member of the Smith family. He arrived to Ashleigh and Justin just 7 short weeks ago. He is just so precious. They are so blessed to have such a beautiful family!

Ethan's birthday was on Monday, so we threw him a small birthday

party. Ellie had a tough time giving Ethan a whole day in the spot light.. lol

Due to this house only being more so a vacation home Mom and Dad don't have cable. Every night after the kiddos went to bed we would all sit around and watch movies. Usually the movie started about 8:30/9ish this is me by no later than 10! haha Chad couldn't resist.

Chad, Payton, Jessica, Mom, and Dad

This is us headed out at the airport. Payton loved watching the planes land!

Poor little guy is teething so bad. He was chewing on the sides of his

book so him and daddy made a tug a war game out of it..

 Payton's new favorite food: Grandma B's gulosh!

Mommy's new favorite food: Godfather's Pizza! They have the best pizza geez! Grandpa was giving Payton ice, so Payton put his hand on him every time he wanted more.. it was so cute. He loves his grandpa.

Conked out!

Ethan loved putting his hat on Payton.

Payton also loved cooking with Ellie. She is a marvelous cook.

If you like Birthday cake or soup she's your go to girl! lol

We had so much fun and are hoping to go back every summer with the family. Unfortunately we are still recovering from the trip home, Payton's schedule got all messed up and he has been one CRANKY baby these past few days. I think its just exhaustion and teething put together. Poor Baby. On the plus side we start school back in a little over a month! I'm so excited to start my nursing classes! Chad and I will also get to take a few classes together which makes it easier! Anyways, thats about it now we are just sitting around enjoying the last of the summer. Hope you loved the pics, there is only more to come!