This past weekend, I went to Smith Mountain Lake to my Uncle's house. My siblings and I have a ton of great memories here. Every summer we would go to the lake and see my Grandparents. My Grandparents lived there. My uncle lives in the house now. My uncle plans on moving closer to his daughter and her family so he plans to sell the place. My little sister and I wanted to get a trip in with my niece. I also baked some of my chocolate chip cookies to bring to my uncle.
Friday morning, I picked up my mom, and we then drove to my sister's and picked her up with my niece and we made our way to the lake house.
Most things looked exactly the same.
The boat ramp and dock. There's apparently a bee infestation on the floaty dock so we stayed away from that. We didn't want to get stung. The water is very low.
My niece is sitting on the stone that my grandparents carved their names on. "Orpha and Ira".
Ellie is looking at the lake.
Ellie is pointing and smiling here. Not sure at what.
Ellie is exploring. She's looking at shells.
Here's Ellie sitting at the end of the dock.
Other side of dock.
My sister, niece and I decided to make a Food Lion run so we could pick up stuff for meals and not have to eat out anywhere.
The first stop was at the White House Corner Market for a SML sticker for my rainman.
At Food Lion I saw this cute mason jar. It was $6 so we kept walking. No thanks. LOL
For dinner we had a nice big salad with some rotisserie chicken. Nice healthy dinner. :)
The next day, after we'd gotten up and had breakfast we decided we would go to some places that we've never been. First stop was to feed the carp at the Bridgewater Plaza. This place was recently in the news from a reporter, guest and cameraman being shot live on camera. So very sad. The part of the complex where the shooting happened was blocked off. My sister made a little origami crane that she placed in memory of the victims.
We made our way to a cute gift shop where my sister picked up a SML t-shirt for my niece and a sticker. I found another sticker I needed for my rainman too that my sister bought me. :)
I found the fish food. I got a bag and we made our way out to the carp.
These fish are huge and hangry. LOL
My niece loved throwing popcorn, just one piece at a time. haha
We decided to get a little ice cream treat. Here's my niece enjoying her ice cream.
CHEESE :)
I got a bunch of quarters and we let my niece place some arcade games. She couldn't make up her mind what she wanted to play. haha She was running all around just having a ball.
We played a few games. Here's Ellie playing some car racing game.
We gathered up all her tickets and cashed them in.
We got a bunch of dinosaur stickers and a little pink bracelet. (no pic)
We then went back towards the house and stopped at the State Park. My niece had never been to a beach before and we hadn't been to the SML beach so we decided to go. It was $4 for adults and Ellie was free.
It was a sunny and hot day.
The water felt so nice.
Ellie loved the water.
When she sat down she started singing "ah ah ah" from the Little Mermaid. My sister and I cracked up. Sooooo cute! :)
And she loved the sand.
I had sat on my beach towel and decided to post some pictures to facebook. A young girl ran up to me and said "excuse me" and I looked up from under my hat, and said "yeah" and she said "you're really pretty" and I said "thanks". She ran back down to the water and her friends said "what did she say" and she said to her friends "she said thanks" and they all said "awesome". It felt kinda weird. I felt like they were joking around but they weren't. My very white legs were probably blinding them. LOL It was cute and weird at the same time.
We left the beach......Ellie fell asleep when we left the park. The funniest part is the park is like 5 minutes from the lake house. We didn't want to wake her up so I drove around the neighborhood and we trolled so see what's changed.
Handmade sign.
I found this cute view. The water is a ton of different colors. brown, green, blue.... weird.
Here's my niece having her great uncle put on her necklace.
My uncle loved my cookies. He said they were the best chocolate chip cookies he'd ever had. He said "Grandma is smiling down on you". :*)
Ellie is goofing off here. She wanted to take a nap with me so I'm laying down next to her but she just wanted to say cheese for the camera and then got up to get her georgie coloring book and crayons.
Here's Ellie coloring in the living room. The sun was coming in the window and I got an awesome picture. I felt like angels are watching over her here. :*)
I made ziti for dinner and we had the rest of the salad bag. MMMMM
After dinner we went to the Homestead Creamery. I wanted the dark chocolate but they were out so I settled for plain chocolate. :) My mom got coffee ice cream and my sister got some for her and my niece to share.
Here's mine.
We also got some lemonade. Sooooo good and sooooo sweet. We left the bottle for my uncle to change in next time he goes.
Before coming home, my uncle said if there's anything you want of Grandma's please look around and let me know. I ended up coming across a box of my Grandma's recipes. My uncle wouldn't let us take it. He's not sure of what the plans are for these. So, he said he'd make us some copies.
My uncle did let me take some little flower magnets that were my Grandma's. :)
Here's my Grandma's lilac bush. It's gotten enormous.
Just sitting on the couch.
We went back down to dock to just look. We took some pictures of Ellie.
Ellie gave her mom a flower and then she picked a flower for me. So cute. I have it saved in my rainman. :)
Adorable
Ellie running back up hill.
We said our goodbyes to my uncle and I drove home. We made our traditional stop at this little ice cream stand. They serve food now besides ice cream.
It's just a tiny little place.
We all got a treat.
We had a great time and Ellie just loved everything. If and when my uncle sells the house it will be sad. So many good childhood memories there.
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