A Very Memorable Fourth of July

I'm gonna try and keep this short because I know when I see posts as long as many of mine have been, I stop reading and just look at the pictures! We had a very random - albeit very fun - Fourth of July this year. If you know David, you know it kills him not to have plans that include either the lake or ocean for any summer holiday, especially the 4th. So he and Jason hatched a last minute plan to go to Possum Kingdom, near where another friend's family has a lake house. Jessica and I reluctantly went along with it and scrambled - in the pouring rain - to find acceptable life jackets for our babies (see first pic) and then pack up four adults, three kids, and four dogs.

When we got there and saw our home for the weekend, it was all we could do not to turn around and come back. It'd been advertised (with tiny pictures apparently) as a cozy little cabin on the lake, but in reality was two single wides badly stuck together. One of them was just full of beds - five to be exact - and the other had patio furniture for decor. The floors had suspicious stains, were coming up in areas, and sloped in the kitchen. The worst possible environment for a crawling child that puts everything in the mouth! David and Jason couldn't even keep a straight face while trying to reassure us. They just insisted we'd only be there to sleep (thank God we'd brought our own bedding) and clean up (I use that term loosely).

Well, they were right, and we ended up having a pretty great time...thanks in large part to Brandon's family's hospitality. We went out on a pontoon boat to watch the fireworks show at Hell's Gate (which was awesome), ate classic 4th of July food, hung out with lots of fun people we'd never met, watched our guys do their own little fireworks show, witnessed a proposal, and took part in the funniest musical performance ever. They had this tradition - the "Mistake at the Lake" band - where everyone has to come up with an instrument and join along with a guy playing a real guitar. It was hilarious, as was most of our weekend. Thank you to the Howell and Plano families for letting us crash your party!


















*My camera got wet on the boat ride back from Hell's Gate and never recovered, thus very few pics after that night. Unfortunately I got none of our humble abode...