A Fun Fourth

What a busy and fun weekend last weekend was! It started with M driving across four states to Wisconcin to race across Lake Michigan on Friday night. The race started in the evening and they got in around 3:00 in the morning. They got first in their division, so he was pretty psyched. We had a sitter for the boys in the morning and I came home at 12:30 since we have "summer hours", meaning that I get out at noon in the summer time! As soon as I got home, I wisked the boys off to the zoo to go through the "swamp adventure" -- a 3/4 mile hike through on a boardwalk through the swamp. It was fun and educational too. Of course, we got ice cream cones after that becuase it was pretty hot. After the zoo, we took Mackinaw to her vacation -- a really great kennel that she loves. We went shopping and came home and I did a bunch of laundry for our trip.

M got home in the morning and took a quick three hour nap and was good to go. While he napped, I packed everything up for our trip to his folks' house. The drive was a really long one -- six and a half hours, but it was great to get there and jump in the lake. After a nice dip, we had yummy hot dogs and polish dogs out on their newly built (and beautiful) deck.

The next day, Sunday, was the day of The Party. All of M's brothers were there, even the one from Colorado (with his family). So, as R mentioned, it was another weekend of cousins! When all the cousins get together in the Smith family, it's four boys and one girl (just like in my family.) It rained all morning and into the early afternoon, which had a lot of us worried about the party. But, just as people were about to eat and we were trying to find room for everyone inside, the sun came out from the clouds and we were able to eat on the deck. You should have seen the food spread -- lots of tasty food everywhere you looked!

After dinner, we all headed back down to the beach and stayed there for a few hours. Finally, it got dark, and we were able to have the Firework Show of the Century. M is Mr. Safety, so he lined up all of the chairs a safe distance from the beach, got a bucket and a hose out and ready - and got the fireworks all set out on a table. I made sure that we were all as bug-proofed as we could get -- long pants, long shirts, socks and shoes (with socks over pant hems) and bug spray everywhere. T, M and I were fine, but as usually, sweet R got 7 bites that night! Poor guy. But, he says it was worth it to see the great firework show that M and his brothers put on. It was really fabulous! I love to see those things shoot up in the air and light up the sky :>

Speaking of lighting up the sky, you should have seen the amazing show that was put on right here in our small time. It was incredible! The different fireworks kept going up so fast, that M said "this is like a finale the whole show!" That firework show was after sitting all day watching an incredible six-hour air show. It was really a great show, with the Thunderbirds and the Canadian Snowbirds as the highlight, and of course, the great other arial acts including a wing-walker. Yikes! We booked it back home on Monday night so that we could see the air show here in town. (The drive back only took 3 1/2 hours, a lot better than the long trip there!

We had a really fun day at the air show, but it was hot. Because it was in an air field, there was no shade, so we brought lots of drinks, but also bought water to drink and pour over our heads (the boys loved that part as they pretended to not like it. "Not again mom!"

All in all it was a fun weekend!

Here are the five cousins all eating dinner. You can't see G too well, but this was the best picture I could get at the time!