Rain, rain--go away!

Well, we were totally rained out today.

But rather than sit around,

we (Jake and his friends, Chelsea,

Steve, Carol and all 6 of us) 

decided to head to Springfield for the day

and sightsee a bit.

First up,

we headed to Bass Pro

We watched the creepy alligator pit

Wandered the boats

Took Jake for a "ride"...

Watched a fish show

and took some obligatory pictures

With the rain still pouring down,

we stopped in at Dad's favorite place...

Mother's Brewery!

Let's check it out!

We managed to score a HUGE table

 ordered a few beers

and finished them off

There was a lot of gear to try on

 and model

and a whole tableful of games to play

The finale of the trip

was the tappin' of the firkin--

a small batch of limited edition beer

Today's was a cherry pale lager

complete with edible glitter

Yum!

When we got back to the cabin,

the rain had finally moved on

So we fired up the fire pit

for some more s'mores

and a lot of laughing with

Jake's friends.

We think Drew, Cashew (he's really Conner)

and little Jake should come back more often!

We definitely made the best

of a rainy day!

Fourth of July Fun

While we love all the boating

and swimming,

we had a few other things we wanted to get done

at the lake this week.

Designing some awesome

4th of July shirts

was at the top of that list

We were pretty proud!

We all did some 4-wheeling together

And Mom thought it was time to introduce us

to cap guns

(her favorite 4th of July firework

when she was little)

Everyone was coming down

on the evening of the 3rd,

so we enjoyed another solo day on the lake

Mom and I nearly mastered surfing

and got to let go of the rope

for 5-10 seconds 

of solo-surfing!

I tried to help Beck get up too

(but no luck yet)

It was another beautiful day

But there is rumor of weather coming our way...

On the 4th,

we finally had the whole crew 

with us on the water--

Jake and his 3 friends and girlfriend,

Chelsea, Carol, all the Klusmeyers,

Mema...

This is what our chaos looks like

There was a lot of fun

and frivolity 

but the weather didn't cooperate for long

Even Ranger knew we needed to head in

A thunderstorm chased us off the water

but we just continued the party

at the VFW

with some drinks,

cornhole, keno

and, of course, jukebox jams and dancing

We were entertained

But have no fear!

The weather cleared up

and we headed back out

with Cole and Ian

for some fireworks fun

There were some warm-ups

and after dinner,

the whole camp

settled in for the big show

We helped Mema, Jake

and his friends set everything up

There were a LOT of fireworks

I announced their names

as Wes and Jake set them off

It was awesome

The finale was lanterns.

They are definitely our favorite.

We all gathered around

and set off 5 or 6 of them

Happy 4th of July!

A whole week at the lake!

We have been counting down to this vacay

for a long time now.

We love our weekends at the cabin,

but a whole week??!?!?!

It couldn't be better than this!

The weather and water were beautiful

We were on the boat

as much as we could be!

There was a lot of water sporting...

I was in charge of tossing the rope

to the surfers

Jack got up with ease

and Weston made it up this year too!

We got a new inflatable

from Ken and Marcia.

It is a cadillac to be sure!

 Tucker went for his first ride!

(well, if you don't count the few seconds

of hot dogging last year)

It was so stable,

we had to spice it up

with some flossing and jumping

AWESOME days for swimming

Back on land,

we did a lot of 4 wheeling

Aren't we adorable?

One of the big to-do's on Mom's list

was to finally use the hammock

she got for Christmas.

We all enjoyed it! 

We brought our old play gym wood

down for fire pit fuel

and we definitely put it to good use!

We had drinks,

made s'mores

and howled at the moon! 

The gym wood burned HOT

That picture doesn't do it justice,

but this one, with no flash,

does a bit better!

We spent the first few days

as just the 6 of us.

EVERYONE is coming down tomorrow...

we can't wait for that!