Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We sure created a day we can laugh for years down the road. We wanted to do something fun...something we haven't tried before. For the 3rd year in a row, Adam's missed out on the parade and fireworks. Auburn has both in the evening, starting at 7, which is the time he goes to the old man. So, he wanted to do something fun during the day, so we thought we would check out the boat rental shop just down the road. I stayed home while Annika took her nap and Nolan went with Adam. They brought back a nice inflatable boat (weight limit of 600 pounds, we have to think about these things ;) ) and we packed a few things and headed to Lake Clementine. We got the boat blown up and were set to go! I was in front with Annika in my lap, than Nolan and Adam in the back. So, I couldn't see behind me since I was scared to tip us by looking behind me, even though I'm sure I wouldn't have. We must have looked quite a site though. Adam hadn't told me how water was seaping in on his half. It may have been a 600 pound weight limit, but not to where most of the weight is on one end. :) I wish I got a picture of the boat but it didn't happen. It was like a skinny little canoe type of a boat where once we were all in and situated, we better not move. And there weren't seats, you just sat directly on the bottom of the boat. It worked well for me cuz I could sit indian style, but not so well for my long legged husband (he can't bend his knees so well). Anyways, so we start paddling, or trying too...kept turning in circles and veering this way and that. We weren't having much luck. We made it to the end of the house boat docks. :) Got everything out to reposition. While we sat out on the dock for a minute and a man came up to us. He asked us how we were doing and we told him we were kind of having trouble and this was our first time etc. Than he said, "There's a rule for people who (and I kind of forgot the rest, cuz I thought uh oh, he's probably gonna be mad that we're on his dock or something)." But, the rule was that we got otter pops! :) He was a nice man after all. Well, we had a little snack and than got back in the boat. Adam sat in the middle with Nolan in front of him and than me behind with Annika in front of me. We sat off again. :P Or tried. We kept turning in circles or going backwards. We were all laughing hysterically. We had better luck not paddling at all actually and letting the lake move us, except it was moving us back in the direction we came. Oh well. We decided we better go back. This just wasn't our thing. We picked the wrong part of the lake I believe. We were a little scared to not have control and lose the boat since there was a huge water fall just to the left of the boat ramp, we had gone right, but were being pushed in that direction. I didn't feel comfortable doing this anymore. We thought we would just go return the boat, hopefully get a partial refund or something.

We got back home and asked the neighbor lady if we could use the pool. We had the pool to ourselves. It was just right! Other than Nolan getting stung by a bee and almost drowning (he forgot to put his life jacket back on after using the bathroom. He was under the water, luckily Adam was right there. Jumped in and brought him up), it was fun. Than the kids took a nap.

We only had one car at home and Adam needed to get to work. He dropped us off at the parade and we would just walk home after the fireworks. I didn't really want to deal with driving in traffic anyways. The kids really enjoyed both the parade and fireworks. Annika LOVED seeing the pretty lighted sky and didn't seem bothered by the BOOM noises at all. :)

We don't live too far from the fairgrounds, so the walk wasn't bad. It was just that last hill up to our house that wiped me out. Nolan helped me push the stroller and cheered us on the whole way! We made it back home!