nothing but chatter: 4th of July

Showing posts with label 4th of July. Show all posts

Thursday, July 11, 2013

4th of July (Part IV)

First thing Friday Morning I got up & went to my doctor's appointment to have a mole biopsied (results came back clear on Monday YAY!) then we loaded up the truck & hit the road to the lake! ahhhhhhhh~~

We found this cement slab on the shore & it worked really well to keep our supplies & peoples collected.

Love these girls!

AWE! lots of sneaky kissy pics of the newly weds.

Most of the group cooling off.

one cousin cooling off another..

I adore how well these guys all play together. rarely a disagreement!

I am forever taking photos of the sun on the water.

ummm, me :) a pretty good selfie.

Boys making breakfast Saturday morning.

AND back on the boat! Saturday we spend about an hour cruising the lake looking for acceptable beachy shore to put the boats up on & let the dogs & kids run but nothing was found so we returned to the spot from the day before.

another kissy pic :)

getting last minute instructions from dad on a borrowed jet ski

HI!

Tim's catch of the day ;)

ride #2-right before the DNR crashed the party & told him to park it for being too rough while the kids were passengers.

& crashing early around the fire - perfect way to end the day.

Sunday Morning Maddie was finally getting acclimated to camping life & letting other people hold her other than her mom.

Say Cheese!

Camping is evidently exhausting to dogs.

We skipped the breakfast campfire Sunday & hit The Red Barn for lunch after packing up our sites.

more of the newly weds.

The Red Barn in the back, the group in the middle, and part of our convoy of trucks & boats clear to the left of the photo..

and this concludes my 4th of July report :) I hope you had a good weekend!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

4th of July (parts I,II & III)

As I said last week, the 4th is my favorite holiday. I think its due to the family gathering with out any expectations (gifts to give) or extra unnecessary hype.

But anyway, we start our day as a family watching the parade, I LOVE this part!!

this corner we have sat on for as long as I can remember with exception of a couple of years we tried other spots, yes, we returned to old faithful.

teaching the youngsters is a tough job but we share it well.

(end part I)

Then we gather for a pot luck lunch. YUMMMMM I love having it at our house. Tim grills since he prefers any excuse to skip the parade. win-win. This time, he smoked pork butt (when its really the shoulder WHY is it called a butt?? someone explain that to me PAHLEASE!) the night before & got me up at 1:30 to shred the meat while it was warm. Yea, I got up at 1:30AM to shred meat. Crazy. but it was soooooooooooo good! I am so thankful to have a husband that is willing to go to such lengths to feed my family! (all this smoking, monitoring & staying up late was following a full day's work)

So very grateful for this great covered deck on our house. Its quite amazing some times how many it will seat.

some of my cousins filling their plates

These girls! so good to pose for a photo for me. I have to dig out a similar pose of them from a wedding a few years ago! (Grandma, Aunt Sue, my Mom) (end Part II)

And after a nap, we were off to Part III for the day. Tim's mom's annual potluck picnic. As she has sold her house, this will be the last year for this celebration at this location. a little sad, a little relief for her to have less property to tend to & care for.

our nephew-dog Neo. Such a dolly!

Random shots of family enjoying the grub.

oh, some shots of my deck decorations this year. I change things up a little each year. Do you decorate for the holidays? Do you change things up?
How was your 4th of July celebration?

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Happy 4th of July (almost)

Wow I feel like I just flipped the calendar from May to June! now its already time to do it from June to July! eeeek this summer is flying by way too fast!! *sigh*

That said, I do Love me some 4th of July celebration! pretty sure I have talked about this in the past....... oh yea, here's the search page :)

This year, with the holiday being on a Thursday, we are hosting the post-parade potluck here at our house, then going to my mother-in-law's for her last 4th of July celebration in her house (she's downsizing homes next month) Then on Friday we are hitting the road to the lake! Gotta love a surprise 3 day weekend at the lake!

as fast as June went, I never got around to decorating so when I found out last week we were hosting on the 4th, I pulled out the tote & got to work! Pulled down my very neutral purple silk flowers & bird houses I like top put out in the spring & replaced them with all red/burgundy, white/cream & blues. I even got the streamers on the deck this year! Very patriotically festive around here I think. Now the cleaning begins..

What are your holiday plans?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

4th of July

WARNING: PHOTO HEAVY!!

I think I mentioned last year that the 4th of July is my favorite.. even w/my lil mis-hap on Saturday I was cleaning house & prepping for out annual post-parade BBQ for Monday! I got the important parts done & proud. here are the few shots I captured over the day:

My lil brother Jeff & his girls

our chief of police (who also is our neighbor)

I love this shot of the flags leading the parade.

ALL THOSE WHITE SHIRTS?! High School marching band YES!

SOME grocery store employees in their 'drill formation' .. quite a way to break in a new assistant manager ;)

this is a friend of the family. she re did this tractor for a project @ school

After the parade we headed down to our house for BBQ potluck. OH so much food! cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, texas caviar, veggie tray, crackers, chips, dips, burgers & dogs, 2 pies & a chocolate peanut butter creamy dessert that we snacked on all afternoon!

tiny sampling of the food we shared after the parade