The Fireworks were amazing! We traveled to another small town for the 4th where my parents have a camp right on the lake! It's serene and beautiful, and just what we needed in the middle of the busy baseball season! The kids love it there!
My oldest, The Champ, and youngest son enjoying some quiet time on the canal. Oh how they LOVE to fish!
On one of the days, we made a quick stop at the mini zoo. Here is my "middle" son, the Rockstar who believes his popularity is all due to his hair, and my LittleBigMan (my youngest son) feeding the deer. You better believe I chased them with hand sanitizer all through the park!
Here's my youngest child, our Little Princess, Miss B, petting the mini pony. This is the tiniest horse I have ever seen! Soo cute! So far no one has come down with any mysterious illnesses, so my quest with the hand sanitizer must have worked!
Further up the lake is an area where the carp literally are piled on top of each other for hundreds of feet because of a dam. This is one spot that does get lots of visitors feeding bread to them. The ducks literally do walk on the backs of the fish as you will see in the next picture!
P.S.-we have visited these spots every year for the past 12 years~The fish still amaze me!
Back at camp, the older campers put on a big game day. Lots of homemade games ranging from a golf putt putt, balloon dart game, roll the ball in the hole game, to the kids' favorite~a homemade slingshot contraption game that shoots rubber frogs into rings in a baby swimming pool. It was so great to see young and old on teams together, laughing, cheering, and having a blast!
Little Big Man throwing darts at the balloons. So serious! A neat thing about him is he is ambidextrous. He writes and eats with his right hand, but throws with his left (and kicks with his left foot). Well, his skills helped our family team win 1st place! We were so surprised! The kids all got to pick a few toys/trinkets from the gift table, and I picked out a hot pad glove...always the practical one!! We then enjoyed a potluck dinner in the clubhouse with the rest of the campers. Nothing beats roast simmered in beer gravy, grilled hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, "dirt"(a chocolate mousse and oreo cookie dessert) and plenty of other goodies! The best part? The Queen Mother didn't have to cook!
After all the 4th festivities, I took a nice quiet walk with my Mom, Grace, down by the lake. As we both travel further down the road of life, I cherish times like these with her... The sunset was so beautiful, and luckily my camera was in my pocket. She wants me to enter it in the clubhouse photo contest. Who knows? Maybe I'll win another hot pad... I have always enjoyed taking pictures, but have really started to take a lot more. As my children grow up so quickly, I realize how precious and fleeting memories can be and have really been "stopping to smell the roses" and noticing beauty in the simple things around me. (Well, that is, when I'm not driving kids to baseball practice, guitar, dance, etc. etc. You get the picture!)
I hope you enjoyed our trip...Blessings to you and yours!
