Holiday Recap

Mother Nature finally received the memo that summer is here and for the most part cooperate for a busy and fun filled weekend.

We started the festivities off Wednesday night with going to a fellow Superintendents course to watch the fireworks.  They also have a baby a two months older than Graham, so the little guys stayed back with a babysitter, while the big brothers joined in the festivities.  The fireworks were beautiful!  Although the mosquitos, eekk....

I started off the 4'th with a 10k race with my sister and brother in law.  My mom joined us with walking in the 5k.  We all agreed it was a great way to start the day.

It was definitely time to cool off after the race and days like this remind us how blessed we are to live on a lake.  

The island was packed with others ready to celebrate the holiday and sunshine!

 Despite everyone being exhausted we decided for this night that only comes once a year, we needed to headed out on the lake for fireworks.  As Reece said "These are so awesome, I don't even know which way to look!"  There were fireworks everywhere, and beautiful!  While we were unsure how Graham would do, especially being several hours past his bed time, he also couldn't decide which direction to look, and did great!  

Sitting back watching Graham and Reece together in this moment bubbled up all the emotions of this past year.  What a difference a year makes!

Friday morning was such a big day in our house...Reece lost his first tooth (with a little help from the dentist).  I had been ask at least ten times this past school year "when am I going to lose a tooth?" as all his friends and classmates lost theirs.  Like so many times in this parenting journey, I was so surprised that the pressure to be like others/friends/classmates, would have started so soon.  Well, he finally lost his first tooth and the pride of seeing himself in the mirror for the first time will be something I never want to forget!  That pride and excitement quickly turned into preparing for the tooth fairy.  What a special milestone!

Friday afternoon/evening was a visit with some dear family friends.  Shannon and her husband Jack now live in Calgary, while Kim is now in Dubai.  They were back in town which meant our annual lake time and BBQ.  Not only did this visit add two new members with Graham and Mila (Jack and Shannon's daughter) but more importantly a time to catch up and have a great time together.  

  

Mila and Graham meeting for the first time...

Aly and Reece getting their paddle board lessons from Kim

Sunday were our long awaited family photos with Purple Frog Photography.  (This is just a picture which I snapped of her attempt to get smiles and eyes at one time)  Five kids, eight adults, and dodging rain drops are sure to make a photo session adventurous but Alicia was amazing.  We are looking forward to seeing the pictures.

There was no better way to end the holiday weekend than a Sunday family nap time.  The rain showers came in just in time to make this an easy answer!!

While I was a little sad last night that the holiday had come and gone, we certainly had a lot of fun in making memories celebrating America's Birthday!!