4th of July

We arrived safely in Seoul late last night. Even though we had only come from Maui, it was still a long day of travel for all of us. We had to fly through Oahu and then Japan, so we ended up with another 24 hour travel day. I guess we can't complain too much, though. I think having seven weeks of vacation more than makes up for it!

We came back to gray skies and pouring down rain in 80 degree temperatures. Who would have thought that we would miss the clear skies of Seattle? It's supposed to rain there more than any other place, isn't it? Thankfully, it wasn't too hot today, so we were able to get out and go for a walk--and it didn't even rain on us until we got in the car.

I still have hundreds of pictures to edit, but the good news is that I'm not even a month behind! These pictures of from the 3rd and 4th of July. On the 3rd, we went up to a party thrown by one of my best friends on Big Lake. Big Lake has always celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd. It's always busy and it's complete with some pretty good fireworks.

The strange part is that I have never questioned this celebration being on the 3rd. It's just the way it's always been. But when you start explaining it to people from outside the area, suddenly you realize that it is a bit out of the ordinary.

Regardless of which day it is, it's always a good time. I had never taken the kids out there with me, though Eric went once several years ago. The kids loved it! They got to go for a boat ride and even went inner tubing. They were good little riders, hanging on for much longer than I would have thought possible!

And afterwards, they continued to be enthralled by the boat and the inner tube as they sat by the dock. I think they could have spent all afternoon out there. When they couldn't get in the water, they played in the kayaks and inner tube on dry land. Again, I wimped out and didn't bring my camera on the boat, but I can promise you they were loving every moment!

 

They also really enjoyed the food--especially the cake!

The good part about Big Lake's celebration being on the 3rd is that you still have all day on the 4th for round 2! So we drove back down to Eric's mom's on the morning of the 4th to spend the day with her.

Kennedy set the table and she thought that festively-wrapped silverware was necessary for our table, so she and Cade finally learned how to tie a bow. As a result, they got their first-ever shoes with laces for school this year. We'll see how that goes!

After dinner, we took the kids to pick out some of their own fireworks to light off. Since they'd watched a big show the night before, they were up for something different.

We played baseball in the park while we waited for it to get dark enough to light off our fireworks. We had sparklers and Pop-Its, parachutes and Chinese lanterns. Kennedy lit off nearly every one with the punk and Cade went chasing after everything that flew up into the sky. We had a great holiday!

And now, it is time for me to go to bed because I did not get nearly as much as sleep as the rest of my family did while we were traveling-no surprise. Tomorrow is our first attempt at driving to Costco, so I'm going to need to be well-rested!