Hello, dears!
Gracious, this is the longest break from blogging I’ve had in… ages! I think all the unused busyness from the early COVID months got condensed into these last four weeks or so, sheesh. In part, we went on vacation (obviously), we had a big party + game night on Megan’s birthday, I’ve been toiling over a big design project for a client, we went to my great grandma’s funeral, I started art tutoring and teaching at a local co-op again (with frustrating regulations), and we had a lot of company come over, including my best friend who lives states away!
Of course, I took a bunch of pictures and some of that will make it into future posts if I ever have time to write them, argh. But for now, at least I finally made this post about our vacation. 🙂 We went to Norris Lake in Tennessee this year, and the highlight of the trip was tubing, swimming, and boating. So exhausting, but so fun, and GREAT for water photography! 😉 I hope you guys enjoy!
We rented an AirBnB or some house that was right beside the lake, which was lovely! Of course, the first thing you do when you get to a vacation house is explore all over, inside and out. This was “our” dock down the hill.
And here’s the view from the lake! The water was pretty clean for lake water, and it was the perfect temperature.
My parents got some pizza on the way back from the grocery store the first day, so we took that and a watermelon down to the dock to eat.
A line of siblings. 😀
Mom and Dad ALSO had the brilliant idea to buy a couple of cheap (like, $7) air mattresses at Walmart since they were out of pool noodles. We had SO much fun with them, oh my! Especially running off of the dock and trying to stand or slide onto them. *grins*
They were also quite comfortable for sitting or relaxing on. Overall, I highly recommend this as a water toy thingy – it’s better than a lot of other cheap inner-tubes and such.
One evening I stayed outside longer than the rest of my family and paddled around, collecting wet leaves – and a water snail on accident. 😛
The first night we tried out the hot tub on the deck, which surprisingly fit all of my siblings and I, heh. Carmen was testing the waters here, I guess.
We found a popcorn maker in one of the cupboards, but it took so long that we decided it wasn’t really worth it. But it was still fun to do once, at least. 😉
The next day, we went down to the marina and rented a pontoon boat. I hadn’t been to a marina or on a boat in quite a while, so that was fun!
Dad spent most of the day driving the boat for us. 🙂 He was an excellent driver. *nods* It’s quite handy to have a dad and brothers that love and are good at driving most anything.
Here’s Carmen modeling a life jacket. 😀 They were a bit uncomfortable, but most helpful when we started tubing…
After we picked up Mom and got out to an open part of the lake, Megan and Jeff tried out tubing. For some reason I really like this picture, hee hee.
It was GREAT, guys! We had only been tubing once before, years ago, so it felt kind of like a new experience. We started with two at a time but then decided it was easier with one.
Ha, it was rather entertaining to watch the tubers (tubers?? XD) go flying back and forth and then, eventually, one or both would tumble off and we would swing the boat around to go pick them up again.
Also, isn’t the scenery beautiful?? I think this picture looks so peaceful, despite how very UNpeaceful tubing actually is. 😛
If you look closely, you can see Logan in the water and Jeff laughing about being the last one on the tube. HA.
Okay, I have SO many tubing pictures from that day, but I put them in collages you can easily skim if you get bored of this. I had to post them for memories – I love seeing the joy on my siblings’ faces. 😀 Carmen went with me the first time, so I didn’t get any pictures of her on the tube. But enjoy Megan, Logan, and Jeff’s adventures!
HA! I got a picture of them flipping, finally!
As I mentioned earlier, my dad and brothers can drive almost anything. So Jeff drove us around a bit. 🙂
Hee hee, Mom and Carmen looking windblown and sunny. Speaking of sunny, I put on sunscreen, like, ALL THE TIME that day, and I still got sunburned on my legs. 😦 I felt MOST sore between sunburn and sore muscles. *shakes head* But it was great.
Wow, well that was abrupt. This is the last picture, I guess! I did take some more landscape photos, but I’ll stick those in an Etcetera post or something. After more swimming and games and such, we came to the end of vacation and took this picture right before we left. Not the best-posed (ahem, myself), but oh well. 🙂
Welp, that’s it for now, my friends! I hope I’ll be back with another post next week… I should be. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little travel post and pictures!
What is your favorite place to go for a vacation? Have you been tubing before? What about air-mattress-ing? 😛
Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!
***Allison***
P. S. Photos taken with my Nikon D3400 and a 35mm lens. Edited with Lightroom.
Allison Marie 
So great to see you back!!! I was really wondering how you were and praying everything was alright.
Tennessee is one of my favorite vacation spots! I love visiting the Great Smoky Mountains. 🙂 Nope. I’ve never gone tubing… though it looks incredibly fun. And yes, we actually have a little air mattress which we’ve used in the pool before. Makes a fun, float-y device. 😉 (Though the bigger mattresses look much funner.)
And I’d like to know what’s up with the sunscreen, ’cause I was using some too, and I still got a sunburn. *sigh* But yeah, the fun is totally worth it – sunburns and all! 😉
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Wow. That is seriously so kind, Tommy, my goodness! Thank youuu! I’m glad to be back. 🙂
YES, it’s gorgeous there! Ha ha, really? Aren’t they great? And yep! We thought about even getting a queen air mattress or something, but didn’t end up doing so. 😛
ARGH I KNOW. I think maybe the fast-moving water partly washed it off when I was tubing…? I don’t know. I just get sunburned really easily; more so than the rest of my family. But at least I got tanned otherwise! XD And yes, totally worth it!
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Wow! This looks like so much fun!!! Now I wish I could spend a day on the lake! That air mattress idea is genius. I’ve never gone tubing, but it looks fun. I am terrible at swimming though and therefore scared to be in deep water unless I am on something that floats. 😉 I really enjoy going to the beach and since my Grandma has a beach house in NJ that is where my family grew up vacationing. I still think it is one of my favorite places to go.
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IT WAS! I know, right? Well that’s understandable – I think I would be too. O.o But that’s why you have air mattresses, right? 😛 Ahh, your grandma’s beach house sounds like an amaaaazing vacation spot. ❤ I love the beach.
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Norris lakes is so fun!! Loved all these pictures!
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It really is! And I’m so glad you liked the pictures!
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Looks like you all had a lot of fun!
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We sure did!
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Looks like you had a great time!🤣
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We sure did! 🙂
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So glad you’re back😍. Was worried about yah!
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Aww, that’s so nice of you! ❤ Thank you so much, dear. It's good to be back. 🙂
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So how was the vacation👀?
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It was great! We had so much fun and got so exhausted. XD XD
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I’m glad you’re back!
That looks really fun! I think the air mattress idea was great. Also, your photos are amazing(as always)
We recently stayed at an AirBNB for my great grandmother’s funeral and it was an…interesting experience. But, I would stay in an AirBNB again if I ever went somewhere with that many people again. I’m glad you had a great trip to the lake!
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I’m so glad to be back!
It really was! And THANKS. Ha ha, dear me… XD Yeah, it definitely depends on the AirBnB. And thanks!
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Thank You Allison for sharing your family vacation . The pictures are great. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN Blessings and Happiness throughout the year.
Marilyn and Marion
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My pleasure! And thank you, Marilyn and Marion!
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The tubing photos where hilarious.
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HAHA I KNOW, right?
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How funnn! I was thinking of you and your sister recently, realizing I hadn’t seen any posts from you guys in quite a while! That vacation looks like it was so. much. FUN. 😄 I hate deep water though, due to traumatic experiences. If I knew how to swim I might get over that, though, and I do want to learn. I also dislike boats because I get super stressed watching over my little siblings. XD
Thanks so much for sharing! <33
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Aww, really? You guys are so kind. ❤ IT WAS. Oh dear, well that's no good.
Yeah, being able to swim is definitely a great skill to have. HA, I know how that goes a little bit, but thankfully my siblings are old enough now that I can relax. XD
My pleasure! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
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You took some wonderful vacation photos. Some of my favorite memories are from lake vacations.
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Aww, thank you! How neat! Lake vacations are so lovely.
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My childhood memories are mostly on Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks. A little later, while one of my brothers lived in Maine, I vacationed on several lakes in the Portland, Maine area. 🙂
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How lovely! Maine has such beautiful scenery; I’m sure that lake was wonderful!
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Oh, Allison. This looks like such fun. I love seeing you all relaxing together especially your mom. She mentioned vacation briefly when I saw you recently, but I forgot to ask her about it later. Loved seeing you all!
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Thank you so much for the kind comment! Yes, we had a lot of fun together, including mom. 🙂 It was wonderful to see you too – hope you guys are doing well!
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This looks so lovely 🙂 💛
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It was! (Well, not everything… *cough*sunburn*cough* XD XD). It was a fun vacation. 🙂
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Ouch!! XD I can relate. Lol
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Looks like a fun trip!! The photos are great!!!
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It was, and thank you!
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Welcome back, Allison!! All your pictures look awesome, as always! And HAH, Jeff laughing about being the last one on the tube somehow looks really evil 😂 Looks like it was so much fun!
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Thank youuu! HAHA IT KINDA DOES. It was!
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Eeep! That all looks like SO much fun!! Especially the tubing! XDD I love how you captured how happy everyone was, it’s so fun to look at!! 🙂 Wonderful post!
-Laura ❤ 🙂
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Hee hee, thank youuu, Laura! So glad you enjoyed!
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Wow!!! That all looks like TONS of fun!!! I absolutely loved seeing the pictures. 😍😍 I’ve been tubing once, and it was super exciting! Those air mattresses were a great idea! 😂😂
Also, I have a quick question: do you know how to crop photos with the block editor?
-Esther
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It was! And I’m so glad you liked the pictures. 🙂 Yesss, tubing is quite exciting. And they really were!
Ooh, good question. I’m not sure if I’ve actually ever cropped a picture with the block editor – I just do it on whatever editing program I use (there a bunch of free ones for cropping and more). But I would guess you add an image block and then click edit? I hope you can figure it out.
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Okay! Thanks! 😉💘
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How fun! I especially loved the tip on using air mattresses as floating devices–ingenious!
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Ha ha, right?? They were so fun!
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My favorite vacation is the beach. Ive been tubing. Not sure about air matressing. I enjoyed your story and pictures. It seems like your group had fun. The popcorn maker was a neat idea. Thanks for sharing.
Signed
http://www.welovetheoldestparents.com
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The beach is probably my favorite too! Ha ha, yeah. I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!
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