4th of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! We did! This was the first 4th of July that we had not been with our families out on the lake. It was kind of fun to make our own "tradition". The weekend started off looking like it was going to rain the whole weekend due to some hurricane. I have to say, we CAN NOT GET AWAY FROM THESE THINGS!!! We have moved the past 3 years and they follow us everywhere we go! But, thankfully we didn't really get anything, just outer bands of rain.

So, all that to say, we had planned on being on the boat the entire weekend. But Saturday came with a 40 percent chance of rain and it really looked like it was going to rain all day long. We met up with some friends and went downtown to watch our little town's parade. It was so cute and we decided that we HAVE to be in it next year. Then we went to the local butcher and picked up 3 steaks for dinner. We came home and relaxed. Then our friends from earlier in the morning, came over for dinner and to play. They have 2 boys and all of our kids get along so well! I'm so gald that we have become such good friends.

Sunday morning came and there was no keeping us off of the lake! We got our stuff around, with a 30 percent chance of rain and the sky's looking like they may open up and dump on us at any moment, and R went to pick up the boat. We got everything ready and headed out for the lake. We went to meet up with a friend that has her boat on the lake too. When she got there she brought about 30 people, and 2 other boats with her. It was such a blast! I was not expeciting such a party, but loved every minute of it! I did not have my camera with me, but wish I did. The lake that we go on is surrounded by large rocks and cliffs. We were anchored back in a cove with one very large cliff at the back of it. It is also very deep (like 50 feet by the edge). R and most of the rest of the group decided that it looked fun jumping off of the (probably) 40 foot tall cliff. He said it was a lot of fun and a lot taller than it looks when you are hurling yourself off of the edge :)

Our kids were sooo tired that they fell asleep in the car on the way home from the lake (the whole 20 min. drive) and we had trouble waking them up for dinner. Since Sunday was the 4th and all of the fireworks were going on, we decided it was best to skip them. We made a frozen pizza for dinner and R bought some sparklers and bottle rockets...and popping things that the kids Hated! We went outside and did a few of our fireworks, then went in and put the kids to bed. Don't be jealous just because we had such an amazing 4th! ha!

Mr. Man doing his first sparkler. He loved them when they were the green sparklers. But then we pulled out the red and blue sparklers. He knows that in fire red and blue are the hottest parts, so he was scared to do them. And that was the end of our sparklers action.

Here's Miss M doing her sparkler. She had fun till Mr Man remided her that she was in fact playing with fire.

Daddy got in on the action too!

On Monday daddy was home from work, so off to the boat we went again. This time we just took a slow ride around the lake, had lunch, then floated in the middle and let the kids swim. And SWIM THEY DID! They had sooo much fun jumping off of the swim platform and splashing around.

Miss M doing ballet in the water. She is always posing one way or another.

Mr Man smiling for the camera.

Mr Man jumping in.

Miss M jumping in.

Then they decided to hold hands and jump in together. I loved this. I'm so glad they enjoy doing things together.

Daddy had to get in on the action. I love the shot and could NEVER had gotten it if I had actually tried to snap at this moment. This was during his flip into the water.

Then daddy put on the flippers and snorkle and went for a swim. He came back holding this tiny dead fish. Miss M took to it immediately. She loved it. She held onto it, pet it, and tried to clean it's eye (don't ask me why, I don't know!)  She did NOT want to let this poor dead fish go!

Here she is holding it and looking lovengly at it. I told daddy we may have to get her a real one. Now I'm not so sure, when it dies, we may have trouble convincing her to flush it!

Silly daddy! (He didn't, just for the record)

Then it was bath time. It is a tradition in this house to take a "shower" in the lake before heading in every time. We are trying to get the kids comfortable with this. I think Mr. Man will jump on board everytime, now that he knows if he does on the lake, he won't have to shower when he gets home :)

So, all in all, we had a great 4th! I hope you did too!

Small group fun

Last weekend we had the opportunity to hang out with our small group and get to know them better. We met up a small park on the Guadelupe river. There ended up with nearly 40 people there (kiddos included). We had so much fun. When we got there we headed down to the river to swim a bit. It was some very cold water but lots of fun. It was also a blast to watch all of the "tubers" going down the river. After swimming we headed up to the pavillion so that the kids could play, the mom's could watch all of the kids and make sure they were safe, and the dad's to hang out at the grill while ONE dad grilled :) Mr. Man and Miss M LOVED it. There were boys there Mr. Man's age that he was able to play with (this is a rarity here since there aren't many boys his age around us) and there were a couple of girls there that Miss M knew and had fun playing with. We were able to get to know the other couples that are in our class and make some great new friendships. I am so excited to know these great people and look forward to much more fun together with them. I can't wait for the next time we will all get together again. I didn't get many pictures of people since I was too busy talking to the other mom's watching the kids. But I was able to get some pictures of the kids swimming and taking a SMALL break to eat dinner.

Here they are playing in the river. There was a drop off not too far out, so they didn't go too far, but they had a LOT of fu!

The dad's had the most fun playing with the boys and having water gun fights.

I wanted to get a picture of Miss M and her friend eating dinner since they looked so cute sitting together. BUT Miss M decided that it was time to make silly faces.

Her friend thought she was SOOOO funny! They made me laugh.

Another try.

Here are the boys. Of course they had to get in on the silly face pictures.

Here is a good one of the the boys.

And finally, I was able to get a good one of the girls. Of course they didn't know it and were eating, but hey, it's still a good picture. What a great day!