4th of July 2009

We had a great 4th of July at the lake with my sisters and their families it was full of quality cousin time and lots of swimming, jumping, boating, lounging, eating and of course good old fashioned Red, White and Blue 4th of July fun.

Ryan and Stacey both jumped off the top dock, which is no small accomplishment for a three and five year old!! Check out this video of the jumping action. Stacey created a YouTube account so now all our little movies are available for the world to enjoy. :)

We returned to a little beach (really just a shallow spot with a lake mud floor) that the kids love because they can touch. I'd really rather not touch the bottom of the lake, EVER, but I was willing to sacrifice for their enjoyment. We're training up a bunch of little lake lovers with this crew. :)

During our stop we got a nice nature show with a herd of the biggest goats I've ever seen, a few sheep and some cows just feet away. Love sharing my swimming pool with the livestock.

Then it was time for a fourth of July, make your own skewer snack - in red white and blue of course.

Wyatt attacked his like it was a chicken leg. He and Ally were happy to just stuff their faces with marshmallows, I mean who isn't happy to do that? But the big guys made some lovely patterns.

You'll notice a sheet in the background of the first picture above. When we were little girls my grandparents would thumb tack sheets around the bottom of the open stairwell to give us a fort. We thought it was SO COOL and would play it is ALL the time and even slept in it sometimes. So naturally we thought he boys would go nuts for their very own fort. Right?Wrong. They could have cared less and went in it for maybe two minutes. Of course when we took it down on Sunday morning, Stacey said, "Hey, where is our fort? I want you to put it back so we can play in it." Are you kidding me. Maybe next year.

Team USA group pic. Always a crap shoot with this get-along-gang but they were all so cute in their patriotic get ups. I love matchy matchy :)

Speaking of SO CUTE, this little miss might be the most photogenic baby ever. Just take a minute to enjoy the cuteness.

Brotherly love (gum is such a great motivator).

Then it was off to the fireworks. Since I was little we've spent most fourths at the lake and typically go in the boat to watch fireworks from the water. Just another tradition that I LOVE getting to share with my boys.

There was lots of waiting for dark-thirty, but somehow we managed to stay entertained.
Once the fireworks started they did not disappoint. We ere RIGHT underneath them and it was a GREAT show!! I kept having to squint my eyes they were so bright.

We took our sleepy pyromaniacs home for a little of our own firework fun but III was having trouble keeping his eyes open so after a few sparklers, tanks and a homegrown finale we called it a night. Thanks for the cool fireworks Uncle Josh!!

Honey and GP we REALLY missed having you there, but we had a great weekend.