The Basham clan converged on Dale Hollow Lake in Tennessee earlier this summer. Papaw's had a dream to take his sons and grandchildren on a fishing trip for a while now and boy we did it IN STYLE. There was no messing around on this trip.
We were living it up in a 75 foot houseboat complete with 6 bedrooms (each with a queen bed!), 2 full bathrooms, a kitchen, a massive dining room table, a living room complete with TV/DVD, a front porch with gas grill and dining area, a back porch, a second story deck with lawn chairs and chaises and a slide with a water pump that would keep it wet! HO-LY CRAP. It was awesome.
Now, I gotta say I had my reservations. I was all nervous about getting motion sick, but turns out I had nothing to worry about. The lake was so calm that unless we were moving the boat, I never felt sick at all. The kids did great too. Whew.
On the afternoon we arrived, it was absolutely gorgeous (and hot) while we were unloading the cars and hauling all our whole entire lives on to this boat for our 3 day stay. (Hey Gilligan thought he was going on a 3 hour tour and look what happened to him....)
We finally got er all loaded up and then this teenage boy comes to tell us how to actually drive this massive thing. He's like, have you ever driven a houseboat before? We're like, no. So he then spends approximately 13 seconds telling us what to do. There's about 12 switches and buttons for driving, running the generator, turning on various pumps and so on and etc. And there's NO HANDBOOK or instruction guide. But this kid is like, boom boom boom, there you go, simple as that. And off we go. This ridiculous lack of instructions or leave behind manual caused us problems multiple times throughout the trip (two times of not being able to start the thing, cold showers, etc). But oh well, now we know better. And by the way, when we brought the boat back and complained about no manual, one miraculously showed up...
The kiddos and I immensely enjoyed the sunshine and the boat ride out. The breeze. Oh it was NICE.
And that was the end of the sunshine for the next three days. It misted rain almost the entire time we were there. We were very fortunate, however, that at least the lake water was fairly warm and it never really stormed so we could still enjoy the water.
Because I took too long to get around to blogging this, I'm quite sure that I have forgotten the order in which things happened so never mind about that. And if my story telling stops making sense, then just ignore the words and enjoy the photographs.
Joel had purchased fishing rods with the kiddos a week or two before our trip. They thought those were the coolest. Lily was interested in fishing right away.
Whitney (or Whickey as Tyler calls her) was getting in on the fishing action too and it didn't take long at all before she caught her first one.
And not too much later, Lillers got her first fish!
Tyler also got in on the fishing action. The kids' fishing poles came with a fish weight on the end of them so that the kids could practice casting and "fishing" without the danger of a hook on them. This is how we left Tyler's pole the whole time but Lily's we changed out the silcone fish for a real bobber and hook. So that's why Tyler caught HIS first fish using his sister's pink fishing pole.
At one point, Lily wanted to fish and no one else was available to bait her hook. So I had to do it. As you can clearly see, this was not my favorite part of the trip.
Tyler, on the other hand, had no issue with the worms.
We did a lot of eating on this trip. Excellent food. I ate too much of all of it. Though somehow we only took pictures of Tyler eating. I guess when he stuffs his face and makes a mess, it's cute. When I stuff my face.....yeah, not so much.
Joel and Jim spent a lot of time fishing on Jim's boat. They caught several fish worth hanging on to but I didn't get any pictures of that.
There was a lot keeping us all entertained on this trip. We had bubbles, arts and crafts, reading and movies.
The sleeping arrangements in the houseboat worked out really well. There were six separate bedrooms on the boat and there was a good layout for the little kiddos. Whitney bunked with Lily, Tyler slept in his own room and Kjestine slept in her own room. We found Lily one day after nap half laying on the floor and half laying on the mattress. So good thing the mattresses practically lay on the floor - otherwise that might have been rather uncomfortable!
And lastly, in spite of the rainy weather, we had a great time playing in the water. Well some of us did. Kjestine and Whitney were little fish and did a ton of swimming. Tyler enjoyed the water a few times. But Lily was not interested until the last day. I think her main issue was the life jacket - she didn't really care for how it came up around her face. I finally drug her in the water (practically kicking and screaming) when she was wearing just a ring and she did fine and actually enjoyed herself a little. Though she insisted on wearing her crocs in the water. Cause she didn't want to touch anything gross (nevermind the fact that she got in and out of the water from the ladder where the water was probably at least 20 feet deep). That's my girl!
Most of our bathing was also done in the lake. Neither of my kids really thought that was very neat.
Josh and Marie have a friend who own a jet ski - so we all got to benefit from that! We each took it out for spin including the kiddos.
Tyler was obsessed with riding it. Joel took him out and so did his Uncle Josh. He loved it. He was all about working the throttle all by himself. FEARLESS, that one.
Lily on the other hand.....not so much.....
And then there was tubing. Everybody was getting in on that action. Well, almost everybody....again, no Lily.
Tyler also got a very special boat ride with his Meme and Papaw. He thought that was great. Mostly cause I think he thought he was in charge of driving....
Let's see, I'm totally sure there's a thousand things I'm forgetting. Reason number 437 why it's best to blog things right away. Oh well, better late than never. I'll wrap it up with a few random pictures that I didn't already capture somewhere else......in no particular order....
