The lake

Our awesome friends, Carol & Andy, invited us up to their lake house for the weekend. It's on Smith lake near Addison Al. It was us & 3 other couples. They were SO nice and let us bring Bear & Happy who would be actual dogs this weekend. You know, explore around, get dirty, swim in the lake (or stand on a log & bark...i.e. Bear). All I know is that we were the epitome of the phrase "eat, drink & be merry" because that's EXACTLY what we did.

We left after work Friday night and it's in the middle of nowhere. It's about an hour & a half north of here and at one point, we're on this small country road where 2 Chihuahua's were running in front of the car like "Please follow us, we know the way". It was so funny & we thought that people would think we were drinking when told them about it. The house was nicer than any regular house I've ever lived in - even though I've lived in nice houses. I was thinking "Hey we're going to the lake & camping & roughing it" but the house seemed like a resort to me. You can't exactly rough it in a house where there is a flat screen on the screened in porch. We got there about 9:00 & sat outside, had some beers, kicked back and just talked until 12:30. For all of us, that made us feel old because it was only 12:30 but we didn't really care. I now know what it feels like to sleep on a cloud. The bed we slept on was so dang nice. I didn't know what to do.

We got up Saturday & Chris cooked the most awesome breakfast EVER! It was eggs Napoleon (but I liked calling it eggs Napoleon Dynamite), with beef, grits & tomato gravy..oh man pure heaven. We loaded up the coolers & headed down to the boats. At first, we left the dogs on the porch but when our other friends arrived with their dog, we made them come down to the lake.

We rode on the pontoon boat, sat around the pier on a big raft that was a size of our bedroom, swam around, ate lunch and then it was time for the Barf Ball (a.k.a. "Ball of Death" or a.k.a. "Ball of Paralysis"). That is it's legal & true name. I didn't make it up. It was just this big ball you get in and rolled around. Whenever people rode by you'd just see arms & legs going everywhere. All the guys went out & rode & I was just dying to & dying to and finally, I just went for it. It was so much fun. I flopped around & rolled around & laughed my head off!!!

The dogs were - I don't know - finally dogs!!! No couch or air conditioning all day long. Happy came down to the lake & just walked right in the water, swam around and was a dog at the lake. Bear? Well, he stood on the edge of the water & watched the other 3 dogs swim in the water. He ran along the shore line & eventually swam over to a log where he stood for probably an hour & barked. Even one of the other dogs there came over like "Buddy, this is how you do it" and nothing. Chris finally went over & pushed him in the water, he swam the wrong way, got hung on a rope & our friend Joey had to rescue him. What a crazy dog!! I mean seriously, I was so embarrassed.

About 5:00, we headed inside to shower & cook dinner. Well, I sat on the porch & had a few beers with the girls while the boys cooked. We did clean though. It was so good. We had chicken, ribs, corn, fried green tomatoes, mashed potatoes, cheddar biscuits and man we were all just spent after that. We went to bed about 10:30 & man I slept like a baby. We got up this morning & had eggs, bacon, biscuits & coffee & just talked & laughed and then headed home. Such a relaxing weekend that we'll probably all get together & do this winter. We had so much fun & can't wait to go back.