Happy 4th of July! ~And Another Turtle Race

Another 4th of July upon us... which means not only celebrating our independence from Great Britain, but also another short jaunt to the big willow (?) tree to take pictures of the kiddos.

And we had to get a picture with the kids and Uncle Cory.  :-)

The guys hung back from fishing to hang out with the family.   The kids took off in the paddle boat (more turtle-catching to do, ya know).  And Ramsey got to play with pool toys and swim again.  

And squirt the heck out of everyone that came within a few feet of him!

I got soaked.  I seceded to the deck and took cover.

Daddy got drenched, again and again.   Ramsey loved that!   I thought it was funny too.  :-)

Auntie Sarah got attacked too.  She fought back.

And Maggie, who loves to swim, went for a dip in the water.   Riggs was in the water too.  She isn't fond of Riggs (normally won't go within a few feet of him), but on this afternoon, they bonded!

When the kids came back from their latest turtle-hunting adventure, they came back with another mother-load!

They had a novel idea of placing bets on the turtles (with monetary rewards for the first three places).   The money part didn't fly, but we did have fun betting on which turtle was going to be the winner.  Everyone picked their turtles and away they went!

"Ramsey's turtle" was the tiniest of the bunch; he was maybe only 5" long.

Sadie celebrated as the turtle she and Eric picked made it into the water first.

But there were still more to get to the water.

The kids later shot off more water fireworks, trying to blast things they saw in the water.

Take cover!

Ramsey sought solace with Auntie Sarah.

and in the paddle boat.

Isaac's smoke-bomb-in-hand made him appear to be a smaller male version of the Statue of Liberty.

How apropos.  :-)