The 4th of July at the Lake

I can't think of anywhere else I would rather celebrate a warm, sunny 4th of July than on the lake.

And neither can Audrey for that matter. She loves spending time at the lake playing on the beach and dipping her toes in the water.

Grant, on the other hand dives right in. He was rescuing a dead sunfish with that purple bucket and he was so proud of himslef.

Shortly thereafter we talked Grandpa Oscar into giving us a pontoon ride around the entire lake. Everyone was all sunblocked, sunglasses and life jacked up and ready to roll.

Of course, Grant had to torment his little Sissy a bit. She wasn't having any of it and about chomped his finger off!

Daddy even had to step in and play referee.

But that didn't stop our tenacious 4 year old. He had to give her one more poke! I think I would have laughed if she had nipped him, just to teach him a little lesson!

Sooner or later, everyone kept their hands to themselves and we simply enjoyed the scenery.

Grant was bummed that we missed the boat parade but at least we got to watch it from shore and wave until our arms were ready to fall off!

Emily and Julie were along for the ride too. Notice, Em still has her face paint on from the night before.

Not sure what was going on here, but that is a pretty funny face she is making. Looks like maybe her Mom goosed her!

Tootie was thoroughly enjoying her front row seat stand.

Grant even got a taste of his own medicine by Emily tickling him. That serves him right!

By popular request, Grandpa even "punched it" for the kids. The always get a kick out of going fast.

I love being able to share these special times and make memories with my kids. Seeing the smiles on their faces makes even the bad times fade away.

Speaking of fading...Tootie hadn't napped all day and she started falling asleep standing up! Look at how drowsy her eyes are here!!!

Minutes later she could no longer stand it and just had to lie down. Don't fool yourself though. She only stayed down for about a minute. She must have caught her second wind cause she was up the rest of the trip.

Towards the end of the ride we came across a mama loon and her two babies. I didn't have my zoom lens on so I didn't get any extreme close ups but it is always cool to see a loon up close and personal.

We even got to see the mama feeding her baby. How precious!

I am so thankful that I have been blessed with a wonderful husband, two beautiful children and good health for us all so that we are able to share these special times.

I wish the same good fortune upon you all!

Welcome Gage Mikkel Bjerga!

I had my 4th of July post all done and ready to publish, but as it turns out, I have waaaaaay more exciting news to share! My best friend, Lisa gave birth to her first child this morning at 5:59am. His name is Gage Mikkel Bjerga and he weighs 6 lbs 10 oz and measures 19.5"

What a little peanut! He was just over a week early but Lisa was having a lot of edema (swelling) and high blood pressure so the Dr. decided it was time to meet little Gage at her regular check up and she was induced yesterday evening. The picture above was taken on a cell phone and I received it via text. I will be heading up to visit the happy Bjerga family...all 3 of them now...and to meet baby Gage in person tomorrow evening. I can hardly wait!
Please join me in congratulating Lisa and Dan on the birth of their beautiful baby boy!!

Oh, and stay tuned cause I scheduled the 4th of July post to publish tomorrow evening at 5 so you won't have to wait all that much longer.

The 4th, errr...3rd of July

When we celebrate a holiday, we do just that...CELEBRATE! For days on end that is. This year we started off our 4th of July a day early...on the 3rd.

We spend the afternoon at my best friend, Lisa's Dad's house on the river. Lisa's sister, Trina and her two kids are in town for a couple of weeks and while everyone else was out golfing, the 8+ months pregnant Lisa watched the kids and we joined the fun.

This is Jayden, Trina's youngest. Isn't she a darlin'!!! Those big blue eyes, striking white hair and a killer tan...she's gonna be TROUBLE when she gets older!! Watch out Trina and Robert!

Her big brother Jackson was sportin' quite the buff little tan also.

He and Grant buddied right up by doing a little manual labor.

I'm not certain, but I am pretty sure they prit-near dug their way to China! I feel bad for whoever has to re-fill that hole!

Baber-Babers got to show off her cute little pot-bellied self in her adorable little swim suit. I have literally been waiting a year to put that on her.

I am notorious for buying clearance clothes for the next year and I am not ashamed to admit it either! I literally had tubs of clothes all ready to be un-tagged and washed for both kids this spring/summer. I am also willing to admit that I have a problem!

Grant was just plum happy to be out enjoying some nice sunny weather!

This picture cracks me up! That is some seriously crazy hair Tootie is sportin'!

And an equally crazy little personality to boot! I don't know if her personality comes out in pictures, but she is one funny little chicky!

And here is another Little Miss Thang who lives up to her sassy little swimsuit. Jayden hadn't seen Lisa pregnant yet and when she first saw her she said something like "You got chubby hands, chubby feet and a big 'ooole belly! (all with a cute little Southern accent)

Grant and Jayden are pretty close in age...about 4 months apart and they got along great.

They had the most fun swimming in the hot tub cause either I was sitting in there with them or Lisa was just outside of it so they didn't have to wear their life jackets.

Can you tell Grant was enjoying himself???

Please excuse the back fat and the terrible tan lines...but here is a rarity...a picture of yours truly in the hot tub with the kiddos. Why does everyone have to get pictures of me making that face???

This one is a little better. At least I am smiling and Tootie is covering up my un-swimsuit-ready-body!

Wanna talk about goofy faces? Hopefully it isn't a genetic thing, but here is Toots displaying a dandy! I'm pretty sure she was getting a little cranky and didn't want her brother anywhere near her chair.

The crankiness only lasted until she found this little wagon to climb into. This little girl loves to climb into anything that seems to be her size. I swear she is part monkey.

She wasn't quite as happy when I told her it was time to get dressed and head out. Can you tell?

As a matter of fact, she is becoming quite good at giving what we call "the stink face." More like perfecting...she can do it on demand now...

...but not without cracking a smile immediately after!

We had to head out and drive up to Duke's parents place to watch the 3rd of July Fireworks. This was the view on the way up. Not sure what those girls were thinking in the convertible ahead of me. Didn't they see the enormous storm cloud ahead??? They were really cruising so I didn't get a chance to see if the were caught in it, but about 5 min after this picture was taken there was a complete down pour...the kind that even the high speed wipers don't help. Suckers!

When we got up to the cabin, Grant and Emily suckered Uncle Karl into bringing them over to the pony rides and face painting. I have to admit, I was too lazy to offer to go with so I stayed back with Tootie and just got a picture of each of their faces. Grant got a dinosaur...

And Emily got a smiley face and a butterfly.

Then came the fireworks...

I haven't ever tried to take picture so fireworks, but I do have to say it isn't easy to come up with a good picture.

It was a long, but fun-filled day. And the best part was that we had to get up the next morning and do it all over again! I'll share those pictures soon!