Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Well, another amazing Lake weekend with the Heeren's and Brown's is over and gone.  Already looking forward to the next one.  They are my therapy. 
While we went to the Lake of The Ozarks last weekend, the boys stayed at Nana and Papa's.  We dropped them off Thursday evening, and I am pretty sure they noticed we were gone sometime on Saturday.  They had an absolutely fabulous time, and Cole got a new word-"Uh-Oh".  Yeah, Cole!!
Jackson had a great time playing with Kendall Searles (who was here from California with her grandma, Connie's sister, Pat).  On Friday, they went to one of Jackson's favorite places, Monkey Cove at Ramada Inn, because it was so hot outside.  Then on Sunday, they went mini golfing and for ice cream at Dairy Queen, where Jax got his usual, a mini M&M blizzard.  We missed the boys like crazy, but as they say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder".
We met David and Jana for dinner on Thursday evening, and then headed back to their house.  The boys left for the lake pretty quick, and Jana and I put Emmy and Lincoln to bed.  In the morning, when everyone was ready, we dropped off the kids and headed to the Lake.  We got there about 1pm, and went to the pool to wait for Matt and Amanda.  When they got there at 3:30, we went out on the boat.  After a little while on the water, we headed back in, got cleaned up, and went across the Lake for a little shopping and some dinner.  Jana and I had wanted to have a little impromptu baby shower for Amanda, so we were able to get away from her to do some shopping, but we could not find anywhere with baby neutral stuff, and after running around to 5 different stores, we finally found some, and into the store walks Amanda.  But, we were good, I distracted while Jana puchased.  Out to dinner, then back to the condo.
Saturday brought lots of boat time, good food at JB Hooks, and custard.  And, of course, some quality time with our best friends.  
Sunday we squeezed in a little more shopping, then ate lunch and headed home.  We all decided next year needs to be a little longer.
Denny was a great Papa and sent lots of video of the boys all weekend, whether it was playing in the sprinkler or eating dinner or just having fun, we got to see it.  It helped me feel not so far from the kids.