And it was all amarillo

Wow. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. The Joneses have been trying to keep their collective head above water (as you will see proof of in this post), so let me bring you up to speed with some rapid-fire posts.

At the end of last month, Natalie and I headed down to lovely Amarillo, TX to Fort Carter-South. Derek and Kayce have lived in the Lake Tanglewood community for some time now, but Steve and Carolyn recently bought a house in the same community right on the lake. They've spent a good part of the last three months renovating the place, and this trip was the first time Natalie and I had seen it.

I will admit, I was skeptical about a "vacation" home in Amarillo, especially since Nat and I so enjoyed the Aspen Glen house in Carbondale. But I will gladly admit that their place is awesome. I have never spent much time laking, but I now see what the attraction is. Steve and Carolyn have done a great job on the house giving it a very comfortable, modern feel. It's the perfect place for lounging around or for an extended day of punishing speed boat activities.

I of course being of limited lake experience, approached the weekend in the totally wrong way. Determined to get up on skis for the first time, I spent two solid hours in this pursuit resulting in a pretty aggressive sun burn and a VERY aggressive armpit rash from my life jacket. This combination effectively limited any of my subsequent activities to camera guy or steering the boat. But it was worth it for those four seconds that I got up on my skis...kind of.

Nat obviously had to take it easy. No wake boarding for her. But she did eventually remove her insect-repellant shirt and swim a little in the lake.

We are definitely looking forward to more trips to the lake, especially once we have a little rug rat running around. I feel confident she will have more luck skiing than her dad. Here is a smattering of photos.

Didn't this guy get the memo that he's going to be a grandpa in about a month?