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.  :-)

Day 3: The Great Turtle Race (and Other Such Wonderments)

It was another beautiful sunny day on the lake.  Everyone got the usual late-ish start and then went about their day.

The elder males went fishing.

The littlest munchkin played outside.

And the bigger kids were gone for two and a half hours.  Doing what?

Catching more turtles!

This time, they caught SEVEN turtles!

We all tried to "herd" the turtles, but they were trying to escape in any direction they could (poor turtles!).

With all of the commotion, neighbor kids needed to come check it out too.

When the big race was over, the kids set off some fireworks from the lakeside sand.

Nana let Ramsey splash his feet in the lake and they watched the boys fire off smoke bombs, more firecrackers, etc.

Bumpa, Daddy, and Uncle Troy arrived later with 7 walleye they'd caught that day.

That night, it was calm enough to light off the army guy fireworks and chase down all of the parachutes.

Then, the kids set off more small ground fireworks behind the garage, while the rest of us watched.

And advised.  

Uncle Eric warned Isaac that even though his military firecracker tank is rated for ages 8 and up, it is highly-explosive, containing a volatile substance, much like C4.  Yup.  Sure.

Watch out.  :-)

Daddy found a popper gun for Ramsey to "set off".  He was a bit leery, but once he did it, he wanted to do it again.

...guess we didn't bring the earphones for this outdoor event!

He was still entranced and enjoyed the blasts.

Sadie and Connor goofed off much of the time, watching Isaac from the bed of Uncle Troy's pick-up.  They made a myriad of funny crazy faces, stating they wanted them shown on the blog.

I thought I'd stick with these instead.  :-)

Hulk... SMASH!

While we were vacationing at Nana and Bumpa's cabin, Isaac was Ramsey's buddy.  He was so good to him all of the time, coercing him to eat his lunches and go pottie, giving him piggy-back rides, and playing with him quite a lot.

One of Ramsey and Isaac's most amusing games was "Hulk Smash".   Ramsey got the biggest kick out of Isaac, thrashing himself around as though Ramsey truly was The Hulk, rumbling the ground beneath him.   

 I'm not sure if Isaac acquired any injuries, but I can only imagine that he must've had a few rug burns afterwards!