Fireworks and Fireflies

Happy 4th of July

My 3rd favorite holiday (after Halloween and Christmas), and 1st favorite Summer holiday is July 4th. Every year since the year I was born I've spent the 4th in the same place, at the lake with my family. This year was no exception. We left on Thursday and met my grandparents for dinner. My parents came up later that night and we stayed up till almost 1 AM talking on the porch.

The next morning my Nani made a big breakfast for all of us and then we headed to the water. The girls swam for a little while and we laid out and relaxed. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat.

We went for a long ride and stopped for a while in deep water to swim for a bit and cool off. After we were done swimming, Sarah Grace wanted to go tubing, so she and I climbed in and got ready to take off... but the boat was dead in the water, the battery had died. So we flagged down a passing boat and they toed us to their dock not far from there and we charged our battery and headed home. When we got within sight of our dock we tried to tube one more time. We got in the tube, the boat took off and about 50 yards later died again! We flagged down another boat and they pulled us into our dock where our neighbors (who had been watching us) were waiting for. We were all glad to be off the boat and the girls were ready to play with their friends in the lake.

We have a great group of kids around us up there. Sarah Grace has a buddy at the lake, Mia, who's her same age. They have a house right next door and her mom and I grew up together. She's one of 6 kids and they all play great together. So the girls played and fished (they caught a couple with some "help"). And we went up got ready for dinner.

After a great meal (everything tastes better at the lake) we got our blankets and towels and headed to the boat to go out and see fireworks. The boat cranked right up and we had no problems. We saw some amazing fireworks and were one of about 200 boats out there. The girls had fun, much like the ocean, you never know if they're going to love them or hate them. They both watched and had their favorite kinds.

On the morning of the 4th the guys went to play golf and we lounged around until they got back. The girls and I did a little baking. We made a flag cake. They did pretty good, it was a bit wavy, but with little instruction and even less help they did really well. And it was tasty. ;)

After we were all back together we went out for another long boat ride, no breakdowns this time. The water was really rough and my Pawpaw's back was bothering him so we headed back and let the girls swim.

For dinner, my Pawpaw had smoked a ham and made Brunswick stew. So, once again we stuffed ourselves silly and then had a slice of flag cake. Charlotte was so proud of cake, she had been asking all day to eat the cake "I" made. The girls played with the neighbors for a bit and then we headed back out on the boat for more fireworks. These were a little less impressive than the night before but it was still fun. My grandparents went with us this time so the whole family was there together. On Sunday, Adam and I drove back for church and were back in time for lunch. It was really overcast and we were tired so when Charlotte went down for her nap we did too! It was so great! I don't nap as much as I used to... After our nap everyone was waiting for us to go out on the boat. It was so peaceful, I guess the weather had scared most people away that day. Adam and SG tubed for a bit. She's not a big fan of it. and then we just cruised around for a while. We grilled out that night and then Mom and Dad took all the kids on golf cart ride after dinner. When they got back we did sparklers and Adam and Charlotte caught fireflies. She loved it! She was on a mission. She's crouch down and whisper and point to where she saw one and they she and Daddy would run and try to get it. They got 5 and she was SO proud. i think her Daddy had more fun than she did. Adam had to leave and go home for work on Monday but the the rest of us stayed one more day. On Monday it started off really wet and dreary but by 11:00 was cool and sunny. We went back our on the boat and had the lake to ourselves. Which was nice and scary a the same time. We were really far from home when we thought "our boat could die again any time and it would be a long tow home and no one out here to tow us" so we headed back. But we were still out there over 3 hours. We got back and floated around with neighbors for a while and the kids played and took a canoe ride. We packed up later on and headed home.It was a great weekend, great weather, yummy food, pretty fireworks, and lots of memories!

Beach Bums

If Europe was go, go, go then the beach is sit and stay a while! Like every year, we leave early in the morning, around 3-4 AM so that the girls will get some good ZZZ's in the car before sunrise... while that was our "plan" that was not to be our reality. Never start a 4 AM drive by stopping for donuts first. We all met at the gas station and my dad was waiting with 2 dozen donuts. The girls ate and never slept again. Oh well. I think Sarah Grace may have slept an our and a half of the 7 hours and Charlotte maybe 45 minutes (and mommy 0). All that said, they were exceptionally good and other than planned stops for gas and a later breakfast we never had to make any pit stops. Thank you Lord for DVD players!

We got to the beach around noon and went to get groceries and then unpacked and got settled into our condo. Normally, we hit the beach ASAP but this year it was soooo BLAZIN' hot we changed our plans and I think , started a new tradition. We let the kids play in the condo and stretch their legs and then we went to an early (4:00) dinner, we were the youngest people there by 40 years, and then after dinner played on the beach and at the pool till dark.

It was a perfect night, not too hot, the tide was in and had made fun tide pools for the girls to play in. All 4 girls liked the water. It seems like in years past there's always one who's scared of it. It was so fun to see them all playing together. After a couple of hours on the beach the sun started to set and we headed to the pool. We hadn't been at the pool more than 30 minutes when my dad and Adam noticed something floating in the pool. Yes, we were those people, Charlotte pooped in the pool. She had a swim diaper on, but the more she jumped in the pool the more that got pushed out of the back of her bikini bottoms. So, we reported it and they closed the pool the entire next day. Dang it! But we were glad we reported it because it turns out she ended up having a virus that stayed with her the rest of the trip...

For the next 6 days it was the same routine... Wake up around 8-9:00 and eat breakfast, slather kids in sunscreen, hit the beach around 11 and stay all day with intermittent trips to the pool. The kids all liked playing in the sand more than the water. They dug, "baked", made castles, threw it on us and each other, and liked having us dig huge holes and fill them with water. It seemed like every time we turned around we were heading to the showers to rinse sand out of someones' eyes.

I think over all they liked the pool the most. They were all brave and wanted to jump and be thrown around in the pool. Typically it's beach for most of the day and the pool for and hour or so in the afternoon...this year that was reversed a couple of days. This was the first year SG was really swimming and you didn't feel as pressured to watch her every second. She loved her freedom and showing off to the little girls, and anyone else who'd watch.

The girls were also into beach critters. Luckily, no one was scared by crabs, sand fleas or fish. They spent a lot of their days with their nets catching poor little fish and sand fleas and tormenting them in their buckets...but it was good for hours of fun. They also liked to chase off any birds brave enough to come close to our gaggle of girls.

Evenings were the same but different every night. We have our regular rotation of seafood restaurants and ice cream shops that we cycle through each trip. And the girls did great, even with long waits and longer meals no one ever had a meltdown. MAJOR answered prayer! One night there was a guy singing on the docks after dinner and Krista and the kids danced for a while, another night we went to the boardwalk for ice cream, we went to the marina to see the boats, one night we came back after dinner and the older girls went crabbing. You'd think with Sarah Grace being more experienced (and never negatively) she'd enjoy it and not be scared of the crabs. But the last couple of years she's spent much of the time running in the opposite direction from the crabs. This year one did almost run over her foot and she about lost her mind. Don't let the pics fool you, she wasn't as brave as she looks.

Below:

Lorentzs, Lords, Lords, Selfs, Gadds, Beelers, Thomasons

There's quite a group of us down there together every year. It's always my immediate family and my dad's parents and then over the past 3-4 years my mom's side of the family has been there too. My cousin, Elizabeth and her family live near the beach and they come over and hang out during the day with us and all the kids play. It's so fun, there are 9 kids under 6 years old and we're quite the spectacle. The past couple of years we've taken a break from seafood one night to go to my cousin's house for pizza and let the kids play. By the middle of the week the girls are ready for something normal. We eat and they play in the yard and this year we did sparklers. 9 kids playing with fire all at once was probably not the smartest thing but there were only a couple of uh ohs...

Overall it was a great trip, great time with family, beautiful weather (except for one quick storm the last day) great food and a little relaxation.