The 4th Up North 2019

Another year, another fourth of July up north on the lake with Scott's family!  Hard to believe how big these kids are all getting.  Time flies!

We went up Tuesday evening since Wednesday's forecast looked great.  It poured 10 minutes before we pulled into the driveway at the lake house, but cleared up pretty quickly and my water boy, Evan, was in the water in a flash!

We took an evening boat ride before it was time to get the kids ready for bed.  The cousins were already up with Nana and Pops so the boys were making plans to all share a room for the first night. 

The next morning Pops, Scott, and Sydney went golfing 9 holes on the lake, while the rest of us stayed back to play in the sand and lake.  Of course there were morning bowls of cereal and TV shows first. 

When everyone got back to the house we did an afternoon boat ride so the kids could go tubing and jump in to swim.  It was a hot afternoon.  Sean had a difficult time with this part of the day, but we discovered he could handle tubing without getting wet and let him dip his bottom half in the water hanging off the tube while everyone swam.  He'll get to go back up in a couple of weeks and can jump in off the boat then.

It was time for dinner, fishing, and dog walks. 

Thursday was the 4th of July.  Jackie and Josh arrived late morning and I was glad Scott stayed home from golfing to hang out with us.  More time on the beach and lake made for a great day.  It was my turn to cook dinner so I made simple BBQ foods like hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, chips, and salad. 

The lake did their fireworks show on Saturday and we had an unexpected thunderstorm roll through when getting the kids to bed so it was pretty quiet on the lake for the 4th of July.  We grabbed ice cream in town at Two Scoops.

Friday was a bit of a cluster.  Pops, Scott, Matt, Mindy, and Josh left for golf early in the morning.  It was AJ's birthday and she wanted to go into West Branch for putt-putt and lunch at McDonald's.  There were complicated plans in the making for the ladies to shop at the outlets and go to the new brewery in the afternoon, but nothing went according to plan.  Putt-putt didn't go well with Sean.  I took him to the car and he was very upset for an hour.  We had to make a vet appointment for Bailey in West Branch for an ear hematoma so that took up our afternoon, but luckily Scott got rained out at golf and came back in time to go with me and Bailey.

I made the decision after a very crappy morning/afternoon to just unwind when we got back to the house so we made a quick stop at the brewery (with the air conditioning on in the car for Bailey) to have a beer at the bar while they filled up our growler.  I kept the good times rolling when we got back and tried to put it all behind me.  We celebrated AJ's birthday with dinner, cupcakes, gifts, and games of cornhole.

Saturday we went to the lake's craft show, which was fantastic!  Nana bought the boys bows and arrows which they loved!  When we got back we enjoyed our last day on the lake before the lake's fireworks that evening.  I'm happy to report that all kids stayed up through the entire fireworks show and did great!  It was a fun evening with s'mores, sparklers, and the fireworks. 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed out early to avoid the traffic going home.  It was a nice week on the lake.