A Cold Day in July

The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays.
Since I was super little my family would go to the lake with all our friends (that are as close as family) and spend a long weekend or, most years, an entire week on Lake Ouachita.
The first year we were in Pennsylvania was the first I'd missed our fun tradition and then last summer I made sure my crew was there for the whole week. However, this year with Avery's school getting out so late and a few other factors we just couldn't get there for the fourth ... I was bummed to say the least. I've literally been more homesick about missing this week with fam and friends in my favorite spot then I have in a super long time. Womp womp.
Thankfully we still had plans and fun friends to spend such a fun holiday with and we really had a great day.
Friday, the 4th of July, we woke up to a super chilly morning! We got some sort of strange (not so strange in this neck of the woods, I suppose) cold front with the rain we received Thursday night. The high was around 70 degrees, but I'm not sure we ever even got that high.
It was very much a "Saturday" feeling in the Boonies with every one home and laying low: we ran some errands, took naps and made snacks to bring to a friends house Friday night.
Our sweet friends, Dave and Rosie, and precious new baby Ava, hosted a cookout and laid back evening poolside with some of our fav peeps. Swimming, hot dog and watermelon eating contests, fireworks and more made for a festive fourth and we had a great time.

I was more than happy to snuggle Miss Ava Elizabeth in between in her naps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AaronBoone and Jason came equipped with fun small fireworks for the kids to shoot off, and they all thought that was pretty fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had our own rendition of the "Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Championship."

Gross.

 

 

And a watermelon eating contest ... also gross. But pretty funny, too.

 

 

After we left the Noordhoek's we met up with our friends, the Lackeys, to go a couple towns over to watch a firework display in East Smithfield, PA. We probably could have skipped out on that though. We were FREEZING once the sun went down and since the fireworks didn't even start until after 9:30 all the kids were crying to go home. But I was glad to see the Lackeys, who we'd been missing lately! So I'm glad we shivered through.

Super thankful to live in a country- THE country- where Freedom rings! We are blessed far beyond what we deserve in family, friends and freedom. Thank you to all those who fight to make sure we can live life the way we do. Yay USA!



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