4th of July Lake House Party

What is the best part of being a part owner of a lake house? 4th of July parties! It was a blast to invite friends to come enjoy the lake house with us for the day. Tasha, Ricky and their family were able to come as well as Mark, Emily and their kids, the Horstmans, Hiltons and Jurgens.

Emerson wasn't sure about sharing her water table with Abel.

The kids had a blast in the hot tub. Their were more kids in that hot tub that day than I ever thought could fit at one time.

They swam out to the fountain, played on the tubes, used the paddle board and jumped off the dock. This really was a dream come true for our kids.

Carter was chilling in the baby pool.

We had plenty of beverages to go around. If you look closely you can see a sippy cup of milk. Emerson had put her cup in there. It cracked Tasha and I up!

The boys were all too cool for pictures.

Emerson loves swimming in the hot bath as she call it. Since it is so hot out we haven't been heating the hot tub we just let the sun heat it so it is safe for the kids to be in.

I think Carter has a new girl friend. He loves hanging out with Abby!

My girls watching the fireworks from the hammock. Capital Beach puts on a big fireworks show that was really fun to watch. We haven't ever spent the night at the lake house so we told the kids we could stay that night. The kids were excited to stay at the lake house but no one slept good.

The boys at the end of the night doing Roman Candles. Earlier in the night we had a bit of a firework mishap. Bryce accidently lit a 30 shot parachute laying down. The shots fired towards Caleb and Bryce. Bryce burnt his hand a little bit and Caleb had a huge bruise going up his arm from the force of the parachute hitting him. We had a lot of crying and a couple moments of disaster but thankfully no one was seriously hurt.

Emerson cracks me up with these owls. They are to set on the dock to keep the ducks away but she thinks they are real and likes to feed them, pet them and decided to carry them around tonight. Silly girl.

It was a really fun 4th of July this year. It is still a bit surreal having a lake house. That still sounds odd when I say it. It is so fun having a vacation spot just 5 minutes away from our house!

Happy 4th of July

Abby and Emerson will let me dress them up for the 4th.

The kids love the 4th of July! This year we had big plans. Robb and I were really excited to have a party at the Lake House for the 4th of July. The kids were excited about that but they really wanted to do fireworks with the neighborhood kids too. So.... We solved that by having 2 parties. We invited all the neighbors over for a barbeque on the 3rd and to do fireworks. It was a pretty simple get together but everyone had fun and the kids got to do their fireworks show the parents.

I love her "cheese" smile!

Bryce and Caleb think they are too old and too cool to let me dress them in Red, White and Blue. I fact they are now so old and cool that they can't even take a picture without eating at the same time. Turkeys!

Bryce and Caleb were pretty daring with the fireworks this year to the point of dangerous. I put Robb in charge of watching our little pyros for the holiday. They saved up all their birthday money (which was a lot) and bought a ton of fireworks. Boys!

I guess it kept them busy for 2 entire days!

Abby lite a few smoke bombs but she wasn't too excited about the fireworks. Piper did not like all the noise.

Abby really likes hanging out with Alexandria!

This perfectly describes why these boys terrify me with fireworks! We had a fun night though!

Yankton Vacation

We went on our annual Yankton Vacation at the end of June this summer. The kids wait for this trip for the entire year! I guess it really shows that it doesn't take anything fancy to make our kids happy. Just hanging out as a family with the lake to play in. This year I had LIVE, LOVE, LAKE shirts made for all of us. It's not really a reunion since their are 3 separate families but it is such a fun group of people to spend a week with and make memories with.

We had beautiful weather that was nice and warm during the day but not so hot that it was miserable to be outside. We crazy rainy weather that we have had this year even held off for the week.

Grandma and Grandpa and the kids. We are missing AJ though.

Robb and John brought the boat and we all had a great time going out on the lake. Abby wasn't so sure about tubing or skiing yet this year but she liked jumping in. Thanks to John who put up with LOTS of kids in the boat and pulling a tube around for hours at a time. He is always a good sport.

Dad's boating buds. Caleb would have slept on the boat if we would have let him.

Headed out for some fun.

Caleb was so excited! He learned to water ski this year. He couldn't stay up for very long but he was starting to get the hang of it by the end of the week.

Bryce was so close to getting up but he didn't quite get it this trip.

John and Robb worked on wake surfing. This is fun to watch. They hang on to a very short rope behind the boat and when the wake is pushing them enough they let go and surf on the wake. No one has quite figured it out yet but they gave it a good try.

Andy had to break in the wakeboard we got him for his graduation.

Robb LOVES being out on the lake!

The kids all had a blast tubing. I don't know how they weren't sore after watching them bounce around and fly up in the air out there.

Emerson was a little older this year and not quite as much work to have at the lake. She wasn't sure about the water but she did enjoy the beach where she could get wet on her own terms and she loved playing with her animals in the sand just like Bryce used to do.

Not to sure about swimming,

Poor girl got sick after we had been there a couple of days. Susie noticed little white spots on her feet and then it became apparent that what I thought was fussiness from teething was actually hand foot and mouth disease. It had been going around her daycare but she had already had it once this year so I thought we were safe. Guess not. This time around she didn't get it as bad and only had a couple sore spots in the her mouth but her poor feet had blisters and she had a terrible diaper rash which is uncomfortable in 90 degree weather. We made the best of it but she spent the last couple days cuddling with me, Robb or Susie.

This was hilarious! All the kids were attempting to get on the paddle board at once. It was also pretty funny watching Andy attempt to get on the paddle board.

Just chillin.

 

 

Of course we couldn't forget the Go Karts! The kids had crazy goyod memory and remembered us telling them that they would probably be tall enough to drive by themselves this year. Thankfully we were right and the older kids could drive. Watch out here they come!

Watching Caleb drive makes me terrified for when he turns 16. He is on a mission to win and it doesn't matter who or what he takes out in the process.

Bryce had fun driving but he didn't quite have that scary level of intensity that Caleb had.

Watching Robb drive, I know where Caleb gets his competitive spirit. Well I guess that is not much of a surprise since I am not competitive at all!

Abby couldn't drive the big cars by herself but she tried the smaller slower track and although she did a good job she looked terrified the entire time.

Cute girls eating their ice cream. Emerson finished her cone before most of the kids even got their cone. I guess she takes after her mom.

The boys terrorizing the girls.

Bryce and Megan. The lake vacation has been a good way for us to get to know Megan's family better. Abby loves spending time with Addie and Brie.

S'mores and pit of doom time.