Oh Say Can You See...

I think summer has finally arrived in Spokane!  One of my favorite things about summer is the 4th of July, and this year we had a beautiful one!  We spent the day at the cabin with the Burns and Moss families, and Jenna came up for a few hours with her family.  She had just returned from visiting Hillary in Lithuania and was pretty wiped, so they didn't stay long.  The kids spent the day fishing (surprise, surprise), and it's the cabin, so of course there was tons of food involved!  Tori helped me pick out a few fun 4th of July foods (thank-you Pinterest!) and they turned out pretty cute!  First we dipped strawberries in white chocolate and then dipped the tips in blue sprinkles.  The cupcakes are topped with sprinkles and Pop Rocks candy to make them "fire cracker cupcakes" that pop in your mouth. :)

We had a lot of fun pulling the kids on "Big Bertha" behind the boat, and playing in the water.

Aaron was fearless on the tube and would have been completely happy being pulled around the lake all day. Tori went in the tube for a little bit but honestly just wanted to spend all of her time fishing.  That kid is a mystery to me sometimes!  I'll take tubing and boating over threading live worms on hooks and then trying to remove said hook from a fish without completely tearing apart his insides any day!  Tori has been wanting to try wakeboarding, so she gave it her first shot!  She got up for a second and then faceplanted.  She swallowed a bunch of lake water, and between that and how cold the water was, once was enough for her.  She was pretty adamant about not wanting to go again...we'll try next year! :)  We spent more time on the lake, and even Chewie suited up:

How anyone can look good in a wet suit is beyond me.  Pulling it off a few days before your due date?  Automatic rockstar status!  Chewie even got in the water to surf and to try to teach me how to do it...needless to say, she looked like a pro, and I spent a lot of time being thrown on my face.  I managed to get up a couple of times for about 10 seconds, but I'm sure it didn't look too graceful!

After the sun went down, we loaded everyone in the boat and headed to the south end of the lake.  The country club put on a great display of fireworks and the full moon on the lake was beautiful.  We were all pretty tired after a full day on the water, but it was worth it.  A perfect day to celebrate our freedoms and our wonderful country!