July 4th Fun

I know, I know....July 4th is long gone.  I *might* be in denial of that fact.  The summer is flying by, and the upcoming school year is drawing closer and closer.  This summer, Target didn't even wait until the 4th to stock their shelves with school supplies.  What up with 'dat?  Not cool, Target, not cool. 

Jim and I kicked off Independence Day weekend with a trip to Door County to visit and stay with Jim's family.  After a day of golfing (for the boys), shopping (for the girls), and eating (for all) on Saturday, we made the short drive to the Egg Harbor Marina for the evening's beautiful sunset.  We woke up early on Sunday morning to leave before Bailey could cause any more trouble (In a matter of 36 hours, Bailey stole and ate a piece of breakfast bread, may or may not have gotten a taste of a brownie, escaped through the cabin door and snatched up a turkey bone from the garbage bag, growled and barked at Jim when he slapped that said turkey bone from his mouth, threw up on the carpet inside of the cabin, and sneaked through the gaps between the slats in the fence on the deck of the cabin....Yeah.  That's our dog.  We're so proud.)

After we had unpacked, showered, and rested, we joined Chris, Mike, and Chris' mom, dad, brother, niece, and sister (We were TOTALLY crashing their family reunion) for a bus ride to the War Memorial for what has become an annual event filled with fireworks, food, and fun (complete with confetti and bubble wands this year)!  Once again, it was a great night! 

Our 4th itself was a little anti-climatic and a little unpatriotic after all of the celebrating that we had done in the days prior.  We slept in, sat around, grilled out, and went to Culver's for root beer floats.  Nothing too exciting, but hey - we were FREE to do what we wanted, right?  Isn't that what INDEPENDENCE Day is all about?  I thought so.

Egg Harbor Marina at sunset

Have you ever noticed how my head is nearly twice the size of Jim's head?  I guess I have a really big head.

One of no less than 1,000 sunset pictures that I took.  I spared you the other 999.  You're welcome.

Chris and I on the 3rd.  Notice the leis?  Courtesy of Ma Lowe.  She brings the fun to every party!

Leis for the girls, beads for the boys

Ma Lowe gave Mike a beaded necklace with a STAR on it (You can't see it here, but it was special).  He must be her son-in-law or something.

Explanation:  Ma Lowe brought bubble wands for everyone (except for Al).  After using them for their intended purpose for a while, we decided it would be such fun to imagine the many objects that the wand could be.  Here, Chris demonstrates the corn on the cob.  We're so cool, aren't we?

Confetti + Sweat = Fun!

Having taken 1,000 shots of the sunset the night before, I proceeded to take about 865 pictures of fireworks on the 3rd.  About 3 of those pictures turned out to show anything more than blurred lights.  Here they are.  You can "OOH" and "AAH" now.