The 4th of July

If I had to pick my favorite day of the year, no question it would be the 4th of July. #25 & #26 here explain why.

Growing up, my Grandma "Tutu" (a nickname because she refused to be called Grandma) had a house up at Lake Arrowhead.

( Check out the decorations that Richard put up. The flag was hung between two trees and lit up at night)

We would visit Tutu and her husband Bob often, but I really LOVED going there for the 4th of July every year. The house was full of cousins (all girls). We always woke up to the smell of bacon and headed down to the boat to be ready to water-ski at 6am when the water was like glass. The highlight was always going out on the lake on the night of the 4th to watch the fireworks over the water. The fireworks reflect off the water and the booms echo off the mountains. It really makes it hard to watch a firework show anywhere else after having watched one on Lake Arrowhead.

Long story made short, my Uncle Tyke owns the house now and we still go up every year that we can. This year it was my cousin Kim, her husband Richard, 5 of their 6 kids. Eric, I and and our 3 girls. Tyke and his new wife Bev.

We had a great time and did lots of fun stuff with the kids.

Indoor art projects

They all got to make their own pizza for dinner


But the highlight if the past few days for me was having my kids do all the same things that I loved about Arrowhead as a kid.

Watching my kids in "the Getaway" the yellow boat that I used to spend hours on and learned to waterski behind. Fyi- this boat was named after one of my Grandpa Bud's movies and was purchased the same year I was born, so we are both looking a little old.

Playing on and fishing from the docks and paddeling around in a blow up boat.

Ruby and Grace

Haley and Austin

My cousin Gina, My Sister Tiffany and me as kids.

Me playing on the dock as a kid.
Playing in the "club house". A large storage closet that gets super hot but kids still think is the coolest room in the house. I used to play barbies in here for hours.
Riding up in the old elevator that I used to think was the coolest thing in the world. Now my girls think it's the coolest thing in the world.

Watching all the Blue Jays and chipmonks out on the deck. This year we even saw a LARGE racoon one night.

Ok, so clearly they were not happy about having to pose for this photo, but overall we had a great holiday and a wonderful time bonding with cousins and getting to know our new Aunt Bev!