An Unconventional 4th of July Weekend

WARNING:  This is going to be an odd post.  The holiday timeframe was an emotional roller coaster, with both happy and gut-wrenching things occurring.

To start, due to this [seemingly] never-ending pandemic, we weren't able to travel north to Nana and Bumpa's cabin to be with family.   (Everyone is getting quite tired of social-distancing and having to stay away!  Argh!)
So, this year's celebration of Independence Day was nontraditional for us; we stayed home and welcomed what our lake had to offer for festivities.

This week we had a lot of ups and downs.  The ups: spending time with the immediate family.  The downs:  not spending time with grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles - and, having one very sick puppy.

We'll start with the low points (we like to end up on good notes!)
The Major Downer:

Poor Riggsy had been diagnosed with pancreatitis, after a noticeable change in appetite and personality.  He was very lethargic, would not eat, had lost a lot of weight, and just wasn't himself (we knew something was up when Connor and Julia came and he didn't want to get off of the cold bathroom floor to greet them).  On the evening of July 1, after he had started eating a bit again, he had issues and couldn't keep anything down. Another vet trip would be made the following day.

During his next appointment, the vet did some tests and found a large inoperable tumor on his pancreas. He didn't just have pancreatitis, he had cancer.   The doc said the time he had with us was very uncertain.  We decided to give him additional subdermal fluids and meds to try to keep him going through the holiday weekend.  Perhaps if we could get him through this bout of pancreatitis, we might have months with him vs. days or weeks?!?!

We spent a LOT of  quality time with him, knowing there was a good chance we may not have much of it.  In doing so, after some of his meds kicked in and his "time off" from food was done, we hand-fed him food and laid with him, doting on him.

The UPs:
I took vacation from Wednesday, July 1st to Tuesday, the 7th.  Whoo hoo!  A reset and time away from the office was much-needed.  Eric had taken Thursday and Friday off.

 There was a LOT of great weather and time for swimming!

Connor learned how to dive (we didn't realize he didn't know how - usually he runs and flips somersaults into the water).

 Part of the time, Riggsy and I chilled out on the deck while the boys played in the water.  We would both have been happier on the lake, but the day prior, Riggsy was very ill.  But, after a dose of anti-nausea meds, subdermal fluids, and steroids, he was feeling better!   Still though... no lake time today!

I will never get tired of the view.  :-)

On the evening of July 3rd, the lake association had scheduled the big fireworks display.  They light them off at the point, just south of our house a few hundred yards.  So, from the ditch across from our house, the view is outstanding!

 Ramsey needed his light saber, as, in the dark, it is quite a cool "toy".  Each time someone drove by to get close to the fireworks display, Ramsey would turn it on.

 We parked the truck in the ditch, then had placed chairs in the back of it and waited for the fireworks to commence.

The display was quite grand and lasted for about 20 minutes (seemed a bit shorter than the last time we'd been home on the 4th).

On the 4th, we had an ice cream party...

 Ramsey blew off his "party poppers".....

 He smashed his snaps on the cement...

 And we all spent a little more time with Riggsy.