4th of July

Now that it is the 11th of July, I better go back to the 4th before I forget, right?  It has already been a week since the 4th.  It really throws a person off when Tuesday feels like Sunday and the weekend arrives again two days later.  For carefree people only responsible for themselves this would be awesome.  For me it was rather exhausting but now we're all back on track. 

So, the long weekend started at the lake.  We (I say "we" loosely, because I didn't really do anything except bring some food) celebrated Justin's mom's retirement and his step-dad's 60th birthday.  We (my sister-in-law) printed a banner to greet them when they arrived and there were decorations and fun activities for the kids (everyone).  It has been steamy blast furnace hot since the 4th so I can barely remember how it felt, but the Saturday we planned to celebrate was actually pretty cold and the temperature barely hovered above 70 degrees and it was cloudy all day.  The lake residents had a boat parade with boats all festooned with patriotic decorations. 

Our boat piled with children.

A very nicely decorated boat belonging to some people we don't know but it looked really cool. 

I nice photo of some of the boats in the lineup.

Here Ben is, attempting to whack the piñata.  And...I just noticed...a dogs nether regions.  Hehehe...

Tessa taking a swing.  Notice she is wearing fuzzy leopard print slippers.  She picks out such crazy things to wear that I have given up.  I think I did a post about her starting to dress herself last winter and I think I need a summer update.  I have a camera roll full of examples of her crazy ensembles.  Mostly they involve a dress as a base and then shirts, skirts, winter scarves and jewelry layered over it.  It is slightly annoying to me because I collected some very cute shorts and shirt combos over a year of clearance rack shopping and she rarely wears any of it that isn't a dress but it's not worth the daily fight and she just sneaks off and changes anyway. 

Here are the cousins minus the oldest one which I just noticed now.  The piñata had star points that make perfect hats. 

Since the 4th was on a Tuesday night, the big fireworks displays were on Saturday night.  My sister-in-law brought a big pack of glow sticks which of course was right up Tessa's alley. 

Ben was wearing "earrings" which looked really weird.  Sharing this picture because I love the dog wearing a glow stick collar. 

On Sunday the sun was finally shining.  All the kids enjoyed the floaty island all weekend which, ahem, was my anniversary present last year.  Glad someone enjoyed it since I spent 90% of Milos waking hours chasing him.  He is in the dreaded phase...dock running.  He only wants to run up and down the dock.  Next year will be easier.  Then the year after that will be bad again.  Then...in 2020 I might finally be able to relax by the water!

On Sunday afternoon we went to the farm.  Justin's cousin and uncle were coming to load the garage they are moving onto their trailer.  When we arrived it was parked on the other side of the yard and it looked really weird.  By the way, the journey has been made and it took over five hours to drive 70 miles, but the garage is successfully moved!

My mom ordered this bouncy-house style kids pool for the kids.  I hardly dare to waste money on inflatable pools but this one has an air pump and is made of bouncy house material not the usual vinyl material.  Of course, Ben immediately started using not as directed by diving head first down the climbing wall. 

The kids had fun once they became accustomed to the cold hose water. 

Milo liked the little basketball hoop. 

The box said the weight limit was 350 lbs total so it easily held all the kids. There were nine there on the 4th but they were never all in there at the same time.  However, the inevitable did happen...

Yep, Grandpa on the slide...

It said 350 TOTAL so plenty of pounds to spare!  My sister tried it too.  I wasn't feeling like submerging myself in hose water. 

Ben did his first kid's tractor pull after the parade on the morning of the 4th.  His performance was underwhelming but at least he didn't get last place!  He was first to go for his age group because of the alphabetical order of names.  He felt bad when he watched the other kids pedal a lot farther than he did.  He was already practicing for next year when we got back to the farm.  He doesn't have a lot of biking opportunities since we live on top of a steep hill.  He really needs to practice.

Justin and I attended the demo derby the afternoon of the 4th.  It was, as usual, hot although there was some cloud cover as the afternoon went on. 

Ben went with us and he even helped my dad and the other guys sell shirts around the ring for awhile. 

He is standing in the grey shirt to the left of my dad in the orange shirt.  There was a long intermission because the ambulance had to leave on a rescue call so the cars couldn't drive until another one showed up and he got bored so my dad dropped him off back at the farm so he could swim.  I got bored too because long breaks like that are good for one thing at this type of event...and it is something that I can't do because I'm pregnant.  Wah Waaaaaah. 

Every few years this production ends up in the newspaper and this was one of those years!  It was a short little story but I found us in the pictures!

You can see my straw hat under the two guys sitting up on the cab of the pickup.  If you are up for some fascinating reading, here is the link.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/4292866-smashing-time

Now we are resuming our normal routine.  The kids are in a two week swimming lessons session and it is really really hot and dry here and there have been grassfires burning every day.  It's becoming a true Western (although we are actually in Central) ND summer here.