Fourth of July on the lake 2021

 Hard to believe the fourth of July has already come and passed!  It always feels like the halfway point of the summer, even though it's really not.  

We left to head up to Gladwin on Friday morning, bright and early.  All the Ferstle women had a family bridal shower the night before in Bloomfield Hills that had us leaving on Friday for up north.  My goal was to beat any Friday traffic and we achieved that!  We were the first guests to arrive, followed by the Salings, and finally the Golusins.  Everyone was up by early afternoon and the kids didn't waste any time hanging out on the beach.

Luna loved the water!  Her personal mission was to rid all the sticks in the water and drop them on the beach, much to Pops' dismay.  Personally, I found it entertaining.  Our first boat ride was to the "horsey park" so the kids could play and swim on a different beach for a bit.  Then it was my evening to make dinner.  This year we did burgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, salad, fruit, and chips.  Simple and tasty!  Some of us went off to the tennis courts to play for a while (a new favorite with the kids), we had a fire to make s'mores, the adults played cards, and the kids enjoyed sleeping in the same room together.

Saturday morning Pops, Scott, Matt, Josh, Jackie, and Sydney left to golf 18 holes.  The rest of us enjoyed a pretty morning on the lake.  I went for a run, a little over 2 miles.  When I got back we all got ready to head to the Sugar Springs craft show and into downtown Gladwin.  The craft show was fun to walk around, but no one really bought much of anything.  I think the boys were disappointed.  We grabbed them some lunch from McDonalds and went to the Merry Hearted Cidery for some hard cider.  Yum!  Evan got stung by a bee 3 times!  Ouch...poor kid.  The kids got a trip to the Dollar General compliments of Nana on our way back to the house.

By the time we got back the golfers had returned and everyone was ready for some fun on the lake.  Jackie made Mexican food for dinner to celebrate Adelaide's birthday.  She opened her gifts and we had ice cream sundaes.  Everyone stayed up late for the lake fireworks.  In fact, time flew by so quickly we almost missed the start of them.  Normally we have to work hard to keep kids awake, but they were all good this year.  Sparklers, a few fireworks Evan and Scott brought up, and a game of "sack-in-the-hole" before it got too dark.  It was a fun night!

Sunday morning I worked out with Jackie and Mindy while the kids played on Adelaide's new ninja warrior course we bought her for her birthday.  Pops and Jackie hung it across two trees in the front yard.  The kids tried to go golfing with Scott, Josh, and Nana, but there was a 2 hour wait - yikes!  So, it was another day on the beach.  Matt and Mindy made dinner (their traditional Serbian food).  The adults did a euchre tournament early in the evening so we could do some of our own fireworks when it got dark.  Josh was the big winner this year!  

Monday morning we officially celebrated Adelaide's 10th birthday!  She wanted to go kneeboarding so she started the trend.  She went, Sydney went, Evan went water skiing, and Sean watched from the beach.  The Salings went home around 1pm.  We spent the rest of the day either on the beach or in the house watching episodes of Lego Masters.  We got dinner out at The Hearth and grabbed some ice cream at the Sugar Shack.  I went for a walk and saw a mama deer and her two fawn.  The kids played ping-pong and went on a paddle boat ride.  

Tuesday was a nice and relaxing day at the house.  I did a workout with Mindy, Evan water-skied, Scott tried it, and Mindy successfully went around the lake on one water-ski!  Holy cow was it cool to watch!  Skillz.  We went to The Highway Brewery for an early dinner and some beers and came home to go fishing before it started raining.  Sean caught two fish - one was a bass.  The adults played cards.  Craig was up for the night since he was working in West Branch and needed a place to crash.  The temps dropped and it rained overnight.  

It was a great trip up for the fourth!  All the kids got along great (minus a few sibling spats).  It's always fun to see what traditions we do annually and what new things we add to the mix.  This year we added tennis among other things and it was fun!  We'll go up again in August either for the County Fair or just on our own.