The William's Hawkins Super Celebratory 4th!

Our neighbors/friends, the Williams, invited us out to their lake house for the 4th of July weekend. In fact, they borrowed their neighbor's lake house as well, which is where we stayed. We were so thrilled to go!

Shelly drove up with all the bigger kids earlier in the morning on the 4th while Tracy and I packed everything up and let Lily nap a bit longer. By the time we arrived, the kids hardly acknowledged our existence. They were having such a ball getting rides on the Sea Doo, filling up water balloons, going down the slide, and swimming. It was a treasure trove of good times! Plus, the William's friends, the Renaldis, showed up moments after we did. Two more children were added to the mix and *poof* more fun to be had!

Kim was sweet to fill up balloon after balloon - most of which ended up in the lake.

Lily was very happy to see her Miss Shelly! She instantly reached out to grab ahold of that curly red hair. Miss Shelly is very nice as well as patient with our little hair puller.

Lily also got to swim in the lake for the first time! Oh she loved it!!! Watch her go:

I think Abby, Noah and Jake loved the canoe more than anything else. They were paddling around for nearly two hours! I had flashes of Abby in the future - studying Earth Sciences and wearing only Eddie Bauer.

That night there were fireworks on the lake. I missed most of them because I was talking - shocking! However, I hear they were brilliant! The kids had a fantastic time and made no fuss when they were told to go to the cabin and go to bed. I think it helped to have Charlie and Aubrey stay the night. They all got to sleep in the bunk room, which was great fun!

This brings us to Saturday. I did nothing! No pictures were taken. No child-watching was done. Nothing was done by me at all!! We did a pancake breakfast and steak dinner, but I - by no means - did that on my own! Tracy was Mr. Food. I swear when we go anywhere - that man is afraid we'll starve. What actually happens is that we over-feed everyone! It was tremendous fun! We had a fantastic day. My back is burned to a crisp, but I don't care! I got to float around in the lake all day long & I LOVED IT!!

Sunday we all decided to go to church services at a new Christian camp that is opening soon called Allaso Ranch. The grounds were amazing! It truly is a beautiful camp that looks like a blast for kids! We sort of barged in on their counselor training week. Their service was a bit more contemporary than you would expect -- so we sort of bowed out early, but it was a hoot seeing those kids rock out for Jesus!

After we had eaten breakfast, sent the kids off to swim one last time, and cleaned up the cabin - it occurred to me that I hadn't taken any pics the previous day. So I set off to immortalize our gracious hosts and friends. Here is sexy Kim:

Noah caught wind of what I was doing, so he did the same thing. There is a picture of me taking a picture of him on his camera:Sam, Sanora, and Isaac were hanging at the lake house watching movies.I looked as far as the dock for the rest of the crew:Alicia was dutifully keeping "watch" in the hammock. This hammock gave all of us a little rest over the weekend. I read more of my book in one sitting than I've read in a long time. It's a magical place to be!
Jake and Abby were the only two who had any interest in the water it appears:

We were all very sad to leave! One last look at the lake and we were off.Good bye Lake Hawkins!
Thanks Williams family for giving us a great break & happy 4th!!