4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July. When I was a little girl our family used to go up to Maple Springs, New York for the 4th. It is a little cottage town on Chautauqua Lake where some of our cousins live. I have not been there in 10-15 years. This year our entire family decided to go up together. We had so much fun and it was great to see all of our family and friends for the weekend. Here is a picture of most of the people that were there.

We had lots of fun in the pool and on the lake. Even though the water was only 70 degrees in the pool, the kids loved playing in it and Evan even swam all by himself (with a life jacket on).

Then Noel went out on the lake in his sailboat, and I even got to go out with him, it was really fun!

We went to Midway Park, which is a little amusement park down the street from where we stayed. The kids had a blast on the rides, and thanks to Grandma Debbie, they got to ride a bunch!

On the night of the 4th, everyone goes down to the lake, and they light huge 10-15 foot bonfires and light flares all around the lake. Then we went back up to the house for our own personal fireworks show, put on by one of the my cousins, Jon.

We had a ton of fun and are so grateful to everyone for inviting us and welcoming us into their homes. I hope we get to do it again soon.