July 4th with Family

Happy July 4th...or 14th.  It's taken me a while to get around to sharing pictures from our Independence Day celebration but I've got 30+ pictures of family food and fun to share!

There is no other holiday quite like the 4th of July in America!  Everyone takes off work to enjoy delicious food (and cold drinks), BBQ, and the faint smell of explosives in the air --- those bombs bursting in air!

This year was even sweeter than previous years because my brother, Andy, and his family flew to Texas for a long visit!  I was so thrilled to see them all!

Top Left: I do love a little flare!  I got a pedicure before the holiday and decided to go with a patriotic theme.  The design looks almost like a Wonder Woman theme which is equally awesome.

Top Right: My brother, Scott, with his pup Lucy.  She is laser focused on the lake smells in this picture.

Bottom Left: Me, my niece, Kenley, and Lucy!  Lucy sure has grown so much from when she was a puppy (see her Christmas picture HERE), but she is still very much a sweet young pup at heart.  Look at that happy smile and tongue! 

Bottom Right: This was an "ear"egular ear of corn!  Haha...puns are funny.

Top Left: Lucy plays hard and crashes harder! 

Top Right: I think this picture is hilarious!  I'm not sure but I think Scott and Kenley are pretending to be otters?  Uncle Scotty is always good for giggles!

Bottom Left: This is my brother, Andy.  I love his relaxed smile in this photo.  He seemed so happy to be on the water!  I miss him all the time!

Bottom Right: This is Libby and Kenley with chocolate ice cream smiles!  They both had SO much fun all week long!  What a fun age!

The boat is an important part of the holiday.  In Texas, you MUST have some sort of access to water to stay cool and a boat, jetski, and water tube is the most fun!

Top Left: Kenley and Libby excitedly waiting their turn to go tubing!

Top Right: Kenley and Scott taking a good ride on the jetski!

Bottom Left: Kenley and I on the jetski!  This machine really had some speed!

Bottom Right: I'd like to call this the "before" picture of the girls tubing.  They are excited and even taunting the boat driver (my Dad) with a look of boredom. 

Top: These girls had LOTS of enthusiasm, which is a good thing considering the bottom two pictures.

Bottom Left and Right: Oh to be that young again!  I have no idea how these girls endured the rough waters, but they did it with smiles and giggles!  Check out that air in the left picture!  They are definitely flying over the water!

The tube gymnastics continue...

We hit a huge wave and those legs flew into the air!  At one point, the only part of their body touching the tube is their hands, fiercely hanging on!

Then the big boys, Andy and Scott, got on the tube.  I only have wipe out pictures to share, but those are the most fun to look at anyway.

Top: I think this is Andy wiping out.  It's hard to tell which part of his body hit the water first!  Is that a foot or a shoulder?

Bottom: In this picture, Scott succumbed to the waves and Andy miraculously held on.  You can see Scott's silhouette of his face as he crashed into the water.

Unlike the girls, I think the boys felt pretty sore the next morning....

The men (Dad, Jordan, Andy, and Scott) all got up very early several days in a row to go fishing.  These pictures are courtesy of Dad and Jordan.

Andy caught a great looking fish (top right) but Jordan had the unfortunate luck of catching only a small sun fish (bottom left).

Later in the week, Andy and Scott decided to put together a scavenger hunt for Kenley and Libby.  I have to admit, their idea was a great success!  The kids were really into the hunt and the back story, but I wondered if the boys had even more fun making the whole thing up!  I sure had fun helping the boys come up with rhyming clues!

Top Left: Andy and Scott kicked off the scavenger hunt by hiding a message in a bottle.  It was perfect for the girls to stumble upon while swimming.  The boys even made this glass bottle water tight by melting red wax over the lid.  It looked so authentic!  

Top Right: This is a picture of the girls after finding the very first clue from "Catfish Joe".  If you look closely, Kenley has a little shocked expression on her face.

Bottom Left: Some of the clues were really difficult!  And there was very little help from the adults.  In this picture, Kenley is using a mirror to read the clue written backwards!  Bravo to Andy and Scott for adding a little twist to the hunt!

Middle Right: They had to search all over to follow the clues!  Even with lots of running, the whole scavenger hunt took 45 minutes start to finish.

Bottom Right: They finally found the final "treasure"!  I was worried that they would loose interest before finishing the hunt but they stuck it out!

All of the adults REALLY tried not to help the girls so that the "hunt" for "treasure" would be authentic for them.  Despite that, we all loved the surprise on their faces!  I think this top picture says a lot about the scene.  Everyone is relaxed in the shade in casual attire (or bathing suits) while the girls are excitedly discovering the items in the treasure box!

Bottom Left: This is "Catfish Joe's" treasure box!  If you look closely, you can see that Scott and Andy made the paper on the box look weathered and old.  A few coffee stains, crumples, and burned edges really helps!

Bottom Right: Me, Aunt Cindy, and Christina all happened to wear the exact same color!  It was a turquoise kind of afternoon!

These last pictures are a bit random but I just love them.  It's always difficult to select the best pictures from the 150+ shots to share on this blog!  

Top Left: Lucy is just a happy dog!  She and I play-fought over this dead branch for a little while.

Top Right: Sunset over the lake!  

Bottom Left: You'd think that these girls would be utterly exhausted from all the lake activities (tubing, scavenger hunt, fireworks, food, music, etc.) but they were still going strong with energy into the evening!  This picture was taken on the boat as we headed to watch fireworks!

Bottom Right:  We had our own little fireworks show at my Uncle Tony's house but alas, my pictures all turned out a bit too dark to share.  This is actually a picture of a brush fire we inadvertently caused during that very same night.  The scale of the fire is difficult to see in this shot, but at one point the flames were at least 20 feet tall!  Not to worry though, we had lots of adults and water hoses to handle it.  Plus, the fire was landlocked by the lake.  The excitement didn't stop there though.  Just to be on the safe side, the fire department was called and we got to see powerful water pressure put the fire out in record time!  Thank goodness for fire fighters!

That's all from our July 4th holiday!  Happy birthday 'Merica!