Let the Good Times Roll

So, Wednesday morning we decided to take a tour of the Pensacola Dam on Grand Lake. The mile long dam was built between 1938 and 1940, during WW1. It was the first hydroelectric dam (generates electricity) built in Oklahoma. .and it provides electricity to 24 counties.

It has 51 archways and is absolutely beautiful!!

At this point in the tour, the guide gave each of the kids a small rock and let them drop it over the edge (I forget now how far the rocks fell) to see how long it took for them to the hit the bottom. They were pretty impressed with this trick because it was a LOOOOONG way to the bottom.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside of the dam. .

. .except for here. .where we watched Cami's hair fly straight up as the wind generated by the tunneling of air through the dam caught it. And as warm as it was outside, that air felt refreshing!

You can see as they stood on the back side of the dam, just how huge the structure was!! I believe that he said that the workers poured concrete 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a little over one year. That's a lot of concrete!!

Of course, after lunch it was back to the lake!!

Devin learned to slalom ski (using one ski instead of two). That child it totally fearless!! He was no more than up on his feet when he started skiing back and forth behind the boat!

We saw plenty of BIG houses. .this wasn't one of my favorites. .but it was one of the biggest. .with pristine green yards!!

We had one of the best water fights ever!! I threw the water guns into the truck as an afterthought. .

. .but they turned out to be a lot of fun, even while IN the water. This little minnow was sure ruthless!!

See what I mean!! Poor Grant!

Tristan worked and worked to turn a complete circle with the knee board. .He did. .once! It impressed me. The only trick I did on that board was faceplanting while getting up on my knees, knocking my sunglasses completely out of my reach (I wear contacts while water-sporting so the glasses help keep them in my eyes while keeping the water out), and splitting my newly pedicured big toenail straight down the center of the nail, into the nailbed. .YOUCH!! A little superglue has saved the nail thus far. .and the cute design!

The cameras finally came out, as the boys worked to see who get the best photos. .and hopefully something to enter in the fair next year! I got tickled to watch them work.

I hang off the back of the boat for great lengths of time to catch only a few photos like the one above. They thought it would be easy to get good shots. .it was funny to hear them complain about missing the subject, or take it only to find the head cut off, or a blurry person. For every 20 pictures I take, I probably deleted just as many!!

Thursday we enjoyed a trip into Joplin, Mo. .45 minutes away. .to do some back to school shopping. They have a great mall. .and we were able to find something for everyone. .FB cleats. .jeans. .new shirts. .school shoes and the like.  What we also found was this. . .

Devin had seen a remote control boat in Walmart while getting groceries several days before. He has been wanting one for a long time. .and just happened to have the money in his wallet. So we got this one in Joplin while we were there. They had a great time zipping it around the lake!

I had a few more fun pictures to share. .so I will put up one more post with the last of the vacation pictures in a few days! Thanks for tolerating my ramblings!

Be blessed today. .and thanks for stopping by!