4th Festivities and More!

We celebrated our country's birthday with a million-mile-long adventure down the river in our canoe with Mimi and Grampy. We thought it would be fun to rig up a couple of snow tubes and drag the boys behind us- they had a BLAST! I wish I had a picture, but I was terrified of bringing my camera with us (good thing I didn't- the bottom of the canoe got soaked!)

Here is part of the crew before departure...

Grampy had told us it would be a mile or so...oh boy was he ever in the dog house for a while, ha! It was so hot and paddling a canoe against the wind with two deadweights lugging behind you doesn't make for the most enjoyable trip, but at least we got to take several swim breaks along the way because the river is so shallow- after we jumped in and cooled off, we just hopped right back in the boat. That part was really fun! Poor Isabelle, I didn't dare let her ride in the tube so the poor thing was officially fried and baked after the first couple hours. It was a 4th of July first, and quite an adventure at that!

Apparently, the canoe ride was much more enjoyable for those who had their hands and feet dangling in the water and didn't do any actual work. Imagine that! There were some rapids near the end of the trip that gave us quite a rush (hence the soaking part of the trip), and that made up for the misery...almost, ha! Then the skies broke open as we were packing up, so it was just one adventure after another yesterday!

Bill and I were too pooped to even think about fireworks! We thought it would be better to put Isabelle down early and watch a movie with the boys. Yeah, right! That did NOT go over so well with them, so we made last-minute arrangements with Grandma and Grandpa for the boys to ride along with them to go see the fireworks. I guess I should've realized that fireworks are pretty much a non-negotiable with kids & I was glad they were able to go.

 a little pre-fireworks sparkler action

I'm throwing in some cute pictures from our camping adventures last week. And some of Mama Chickadee and her babies- they are growing SO fast! I can hardly believe how different they look each day!

 isn't this flower so pretty? I saw it when I was taking a walk around the campground

 pretty views at this lake!

Oh, and these sassy little delinquents from my Dad's garden...I'm glad my Dad invested in the have-a-heart trap for these squash thieves- they're just babies and they are so, so cute! But they'd better stay away if they know what's good for them, ha!