Games
Travel & Vacation: Family Reunion at Acorn Resorts on Milford Lake
A lively round of golf (the card game) with the kids!
Our weekend with family in the the Acorn Resorts on Milford Lake was a lot of fun. We had a blast playing games and splashing around in the lake. We even were able to celebrate some birthdays during our weekend together! Thankful for a great weekend with our family!
Karlie enjoying her time at the lake!
Who wants to play “chicken”?! Brina and Nathan are ready! Thankful that the girls had a chance to hang out with their cousins and for the memories they have created!
Karlie jumping off the tube!
Another serious lake competition!? 🙂 No, just having fun! Look out for Amber and Sierra!
Ouch! That one looked painful!
Sierra’s very proud of her talent! Hilarious!
Brina springing off the tube!
Nicko having a grand time swimming around the lake!
Oh no, here she goes again. Look out below!
This cool contraption was flying over head as we were swimming around in the lake. Looks like fun too!
Karlie was always ready to go FASTER!
Brina, Brandon, and Karlie on the tube!
Nate, Meg, and Sierra got some air on this one!
Whoa! Hang on!
They are having a blast!
Karlie and Brandon going for another spin!
Candice and her friends sailing across the lake on the tube!
They even let me go a couple times! Loads of fun on the lake!
We had a grand time zipping along on the tube!
The kids are all showered after a fun day at the lake. Passing the time watching TV while the adults get dinner ready!
Happy Birthday Nicko! He had a super cool cake! The trucks on top were a huge hit too!
Time to celebrate and eat some delicious cake!
Travel & Vacation: Tubing, Knee Boarding, and Water Skiing at Milford Lake!
Waving as she passes family!
We spent the weekend at Lake Milford playing in the water! It was fun to watch everyone go tubing, fishing, knee boarding (or boogy boarding as we grew up calling it), skiing and more. Thankful for some time together creating memories with our extended family!
Grandma and Zachie hanging out on the boat!
They are having way too much fun back there on the tube!
Karlie tubing with Aunt Megan and Uncle Josh
Karlie got up on the knee board again this year! We knew she could do it!
Working on getting the rope unlatched so she can hold it on her own!
She’s doing it on her own! Way to go Karlie!
Karlie’s first time knee boarding with someone else! She was so excited to be knee boarding at the same time her Daddy was knee boarding! A big thanks to my brother for taking these pictures for us of Karlie and Jake because I was on another boat with Brina!
Karlie knee boarding with Jake! She could live in the water she loves everything about it! So proud of her for doing the knee board by herself. She said it was a lot of fun, but her arms when her arms got sore she didn’t want to stop she was having so much fun!
Megan and Josh on the knee boards!
Lee making it look easy!
Waving to Nicko and Zachie on the boat!
Swinging his way out!
Skiing until the sun started to set! The lake was smooth and beautiful at this time of day!
Pavilion Recreation Complex – Ice Skating, Bouncy Castles, George the Train, Playground Fun, Picnic, and More!
Karlie enjoying her time on the ice!
The girls had a blast hanging out with their cousins and friends at the Greenville Pavilion Recreation Complex this summer. Every Friday this summer the kids could get in to ice skate, play on the bouncy castles, ride on George the Train, play at the park, and get a snack for $10 each. The parents would get in for free (although we didn’t get the snack)! 🙂 The ice skating was only for 2 hours, but the rest of the activities you could do all day.
Karlie and Nicko having fun on the pile of snow they left in the ice skating rink!
Look out! Here comes Brina!
Karlie having fun!
Our friends Ashley from Reflecting on the Simpler Things in Life and Bradley having a blast too!
Goofy girl!
Zachie hung out with me the first time we went on the ice. He didn’t really like the ice skates too much, but had fun playing in the snow pile!
Brina waiting for Zachie to go down the slide with her!
Snack time – Oreos and Juice Bags!
Ready….Set…..Go!!!
Karlie going down the slide with Nicko!
I am getting beamed with snowballs from my nephews!
Karlie chasing Nicko! The second time we went out on the ice we had the kids keep their shoes on. We were the only ones on the ice the second time and all the kids had a blast with just their shoes on the ice. The ice skates were a good idea, but at least for the younger kids the regular shoes were a bigger hit in the ice skating rink.
Brina flying on by me!
Watching the Zamboni clean the ice skating rink. This was fascinating for the kids!
Riding on George the Train. At the end the conductor let all the kids push the button and honk the horn. So exciting!
Whose ready for a picnic!?
Grabbing a bite to eat so they can go play again!
Easily entertained….
Brina on the four wheeler!
Travel & Vacation: Our Weekend at Sadlers Creek State Park
Thankful for a wonderful, relaxing, and fun weekend away with the family.
We had a great day swimming, biking, and playing at Sadlers Creek State Park near Anderson, SC. Our tent was surrounded by trees but we could still see Lake Hartwell. The first night we played card games until late at night and crashed. The second night we experimented by toasting smores, starbursts, twillers, and fruit chews over the camp fire. They were a fun camping treat! We wrapped up the second night at the campsite relaxing and sharing some of our favorite summer memories. We are blessed and so much to be grateful for in our lives.
Silly girls enjoying their time camping at the lake.
Brina’s favorite were the toasted twizzler bites!
Karlie’s toasted marshmallow!
The Toasted Starbursts were goey, crispy, and delicious! My favorite of the toasting “experiments”.
The Toasted Fruit Chews were a little harder to do because if you waited too long they would drop off your stick. The ones that survived the heat of the fire got great reviews from the kids!
The best way to eat a Marshmallow – completely crispy and toasted over a flaming fire! Yum!
A full day of family fun in the sun results in two sleepy kids!
Brina swimming in the lake!
Karlie’s got a collection of sticks, wonder what she’s up to now!
Brina splashing around in Lake Hartwell.
Karlie all smiles as she gathers her sticks for some fun!
Our weekend camping went by quickly. We had fun, relaxed, and spent time together. We biked, swam, played games, ate great camp food, laughed, and had a grand time creating memories. The girls decided after this weekend that we need to make camping a more regular activity because they enjoyed it so much. Thankful for opportunities to spend time together and create these precious memories.
Travel & Vacation: Camping at Sadlers Creek State Park
Ready to unload the van and start camping!
Our family had a blast going camping at Sadlers Creek State Park this summer! It was the first out of the yard tent camping with just our family. The girls have been asking to go camping so we decided to do it! The Sadlers Creek tent camping area is near Anderson, South Carolina and almost all the tent sites overlook Lake Hartwell. It was beautiful, peaceful, and a lot of fun spending the weekend together. There was enough trees between the campsites you had some privacy. We ran into our friends from church the first night too! We biked everywhere and had fun swimming in the lake. There were two restroom facilities near us both with showers which was nice especially with the kids!
Once we arrived we biked everywhere. It was a great way to get around, explore some neat areas, and get some exercise! We biked to several different places that had sandy beaches, many of them were quiet with no other people around. After setting up the tent and camp area we picked out a couple of beaches we wanted to come back to the next day.
Karlie enjoying some time playing at a playground nearby!
Enjoying a walk and watching the beautiful sunset the first night we arrived.
The girls were thrilled with our morning guests! The geese were not scared of the kids and hung around for about 30 minutes.
Time for breakfast in our camp – ham, hashbrowns, eggs, and coffee!
Brina giggling at something!
Ready to go for a swim at one of the beaches we discovered!
Jake found a great place to jump off into the water!
Brina jumping off the “diving board”!
Karlie’s turn!
Swimming at the lake.
Trying to figure out how to do a belly buster.
Brina splashing around at Lake Hartwell.
Karlie probably could live in the water. She loves swimming around!
Brina enjoyed cruising around on her bike!
Exploring the area!
Travel & Vacation – Exploring Colonial Williamsburg
Our wild crew at Colonial Williamsburg in front of the Governor’s Palace!
We had a chance to explore Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia on our recent road trip up the East Coast! It was our first big stop an our road trip. After driving to the area the day before we spent the night at a local hotel and were up early the next morning with our picnic lunch packed and ready to explore the area.
Jake had to work on Friday so for the most part it was just the girls and I exploring Colonial Williamsburg. He did get to join us for a little bit over his lunch break though which was really nice. It was a lot of fun seeing so many neat historical places. The girls did the quest exploration and scavenger hunt. My phone didn’t work in all the areas so we didn’t finish all the quest activities, but we did get our prize for completing the scavenger hunt.
Last year in school the girls studied a lot of about the American Revolution, Civil War and more in Social Studies so this adventure really ties into some of the items they have been learning about in school. Colonial Williamsburg is like taking a step back into America’s past during the time of the American Revolution. There are hundreds of restored buildings, exhibits, homes, government offices, trade shops, museums and more to explore.
We’ve made it!
Hiking along the path to the next location to explore! This was a neat bridge with a stream and path running underneath it, nice and cool on a hot summer day!
Brina and Karlie outside the Governor’s Palace!
Beautiful display of pistols with the family crest in the entry way of the Governor’s Palace!
Standing in front of the fire palace with a small portion of the weapons on display in the palace. The Governor’s Palace had impressive displays of muskets, pistols, swords, curve-blade sabers and more! The hundreds of weapons visible once stepping into the house was meant to both wow and intimidate you.
More weapons displayed on the stairwell. Brina really thought they did a great job hanging the guns!
Touring the gardens at the Governor’s Palace!
Jake with his girls near the palace greens!
George Wythe House and gardens!
Exploring inside George Wythe’s house!
Wow, he was studying some really cool scientific items.
Playing the game of “Pick up Sticks”
Watching him hand-make cedar shingles for a building at Colonial Williamsburg! The fresh wood shavings smelled awesome!
Oh no! Brina and Karlie in the stocks, what did they do?!
Touring the print shop! Wow, there are some BIG books! Karlie loved it!
Brina all smiles!
Grinding up seeds of grain. This is going to take forever if we want to make some homemade bread!
Outside the capital building!
We had a blast exploring Colonial Williamsburg! The girls were ready to stay for a week and explore even more. We only had the one day at Colonial Williamsburg along our road trip, but we packed in a ton of activities into that one day. Thankfully, we started early and were able to get through a large portion of the items that the girls wanted to do. It was really neat learning what it would be like to live there during the time of the American Revolution. All the people were very friendly, helpful, and it was a great day with the kids. We were all exhausted by the time we got back into the car later that day and headed back onto the road towards our next destination.
Road Trip Tips – Easy Games to Pass Time in the Car
Karlie having fun and being goofy on the road trip.
On the road again….! After a full day of work, horse camp, packing the van, and more fun we set off on another road trip adventure with the whole family. The kids are excited and we have several days worth of fun on the road planned. We get to go to a few places we’ve never been before so that is always fun for the family!
Road Trip Game ideas (here are a few that we played on this particular trip):
- Road Trip Bingo – you can buy a road trip bingo board or create your own if you know some of the items you will be seeing such including road signs, building, national monuments, animals, etc….
- I Spy – you don’t need anything to bring for this game. You just have someone say “I Spy With My Little Eye” and the rest of the family has to guess what object they see whether in the car or outside of the vehicle.
- License Plate Game – how many of the 50 states can you see while on the road trip, if I remember correctly we got 37 US states and even some Canada ones too! It was the closest we have ever come to getting 50 states!
- 20 Questions – this does not require any prep or packing either. Have one person think of a plant, animal, or thing and the rest of the family gets a total of 20 questions to determine what object they were thinking about. The person answering the question can only answer “yes” or “no” and nothing else.
- Animal Game – the first person to spy an animal or pen of animals (a herd counts as 1 point) gets one point. If there are different types of animals in the same pen or location (such as horses, cows, donkey, etc…) they can get additional points for each type of animal if they call them out first. Wild animals or unique farm animals (other than birds) such as deer, coyotes, emus, llamas, etc…. get a bonus 5 points for each type they see. Our rule is at least one other person in the car must see the animal as well.
- Car Game – everyone picks a different color of car and gets a point for every car they see with their color. This game works best in a quieter traffic or two lane highway since in a big city the score keeper will have a harder time keeping up and it becomes a series of yelling “I see a red, white, blue, green…..one!”
- Historical Marker Game – the first person to see something of historical significance gets a point.
- ABC Game – this one is great for areas with a lot of road signs or billboards. You start with the letter “A” and find a written word that starts with that letter than move onto “B” and so forth.
- Car Color Bingo – we picked the car color “yellow” and the first person to spy a yellow vehicle would call out “Bingo yellow Penske truck or Bingo yellow convertible, etc…” and they would get one point per vehicle they spotted. Another person had to see the vehicle to count and the majority of the vehicle had to be yellow in order to count.
These were a handful of the ones we played on our road trip. Hope you enjoy some of them if you are going on a road trip too! It is a great way to pass the time and have fun. We all want road trips with the whole family to be fun and pleasant for everyone!
We stopped for dinner at a Chic-Fil-A along the way and let the kids run around in the play area for a few minutes while we waiting for the food. It was a great way to let them stretch their legs and have fun. It helps break up the time just sitting idle in the vehicle too.
Our family enjoys road trips! It is a fun way to spend extra time since we are all packed into the van together. While in the car we have plenty to talk about, games to play, snacks, videos to watch, audiobooks to listen, and even summer workbooks to complete, stories to tell, memories to laugh about, books to read, and more so the time goes by quickly! Yes, we are one of “those” families that make their kids do summer workbooks to keep them up to speed during summer vacation, although we don’t necessarily make them do it everyday (road trips are a great time to get a few pages of some workbooks done). Even though we have a DVD player in our van the kids are not allowed to watch it very often. It is our rule that unless the trip is 5 or more hours the DVD never gets opened. Since we had a 40 plus hours of driving ahead of us the kids were excited to watch a few DVDs on this trip! What do you do to make road trips fun for your family and break up those long hours in the vehicle with the kids?
Hop, Skip, Jump, Play, Swing, and Braid
All the kids had various ways to go up and down the road before they could open their treasure box – including running, skipping, hopping on one foot, hopping on two feet, etc….
After breakfast every morning while the cousins were here the five kids got to open up an envelope with clues leading to that days treasure chest. Before opening the treasure chest for the day they were required to complete the tasks or solve the puzzles before locating the treasure chest. It was something fun that they looked forward to doing every morning. All the kids participating and had a blast completing the tasks assigned each morning. Every morning it was something different (sometimes it was a puzzle, scavenger hunt, physical activity, or something else).
They are almost to the finish line! Keep going! They all made it and received their goodies for the day.
Sweet girls drying off and doing some chalk drawings after a swim in the pool
Noah and Skipper! Skipper loved having all the kids running around and playing outside all week!
Aunt Mirm showing the girls a neat game!
Brina loves little kids! She was so sweet pushing her two little cousins in the swings. Too cute!
Aunt Mirm wanted to try a new type of hairdo and Karlie was her test subject…..needless to say Karlie was patient, but not overly impressed with the styling. She was a good sport about it though!
Brina undid her braids that Aunt Mirm had done. She loved having her snazzy crinkled hair that day!
Brina wanted me to take a picture of the back of her hair too!
Outdoor Summer Activities – Pool, Games, and More!
We spent a good bit of our summer time in the pool when we were home. Last year I got a blow up seesaw for the pool. It was a big hit with the kids! The hardest part was staying on when you were all wet!
Having fun in the pool!
We put crepe paper across the two doors with kids sleeping in them. They thought it was hilarious when they woke up and were barricaded in the room. They had a blast running through it that morning!
Karlie reading the “clues” for the treasure hunt that morning.
Looking for another clue!
The girls came up with a bunch of outdoor games for the whole family to play. One of them was a relay race in the side yard. The Dad’s even participated!
Another game required the teammates to hit the baseball.
Now were ready for the bike and scooter races!
Hula Hoop contest!
Noah thought he was pretty smart doing it on his arm instead of around the waist!
The youngest had the best hula hooping skills! She won hands down as the best hula hooper in both families!
Aunt Mirm braiding the girls hair. The thought that was pretty cool having all the fancy braids!
A lot of girly chitchat, giggles, and silliness going on in the back of the van.
Greenville Drive Baseball Game & Fireworks
Greenville Drive Game
Jake’s company hosted an event at the Greenville Drive. We ate delicious BBQ and enjoyed one of the best Greenville Drive Games we have been to in our area. The girls had a blast watching the game! Since it was a Friday night they had fireworks after the game as well which are always a big hit with everyone! Greenville won with a 13 point spread.
Daddy and Brina watching the baseball game!
Karlie is very excited!
Awesome fireworks!
Great way to end the night at the baseball field
A few fireworks even hit the stadium lights!
Beauitful!
Thankful for our fun evening together!
