A month or so ago a friend asked if I'd be interested in going with a couple other girls to a cabin at Lake of the Ozarks for three days - Tuesday thru Thursday. Mom and Suzanne came and watched the kids for me so I could go.
We had a great time... we watched movies, ate incredible food (everyone brought in food and we cooked each meal), read books, sat in the sun, and talked, talked, talked and talked some more. I had absolutely no concept of time on this trip... we ate when we were hungry, went to bed when we were exhausted and couldn't see straight, and woke up when our bodies decided we could lay there any longer. What a change of pace!
I took a book Diane gave me for Mother's Day called, The Quilts that walked to Golden Colorado. It is a fascinating book about the history of quilting in Colorado. Most of the information is taken from journals, personal histories and other historical records. It is amazing to hear what women were able to accomplish and their resourcefulness. I got at least 3/4 of the book read while I was there... I'm looking for a couple of quiet hours to read the rest.
Here are pictures - the top are the girls I went with, and the bottom is of the back of the "cabin" we stayed in. FYI the asking price for the two story, 3 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath house on the lake with an incredible deck, is $320,000. Not bad for lake front property.
We invited the ward over to Diane's house for GR's fireworks display and root beer floats and other desserts. We had a good turn out, although they didn't eat nearly enough food. GR and the guys bought so much stuff they got tons of kid stuff free... sparklers, tanks, B-52s, bottle rockets, etc. Starting around 7:45 GR and some of the other dad's helped the kids light off the daytime kid stuff.
The kids had so much fun doing tanks and B-52s at Shulls Saturday! GR was thrilled to learn his kids enjoyed doing daytime stuff. I think he thought they wouldn't get into it until they were older.
The sparklers were fun to watch. The kids loved them, but you could tell some were more cautious than others. Although Sam never smiled when he had one in his hands, and never took his eyes off the flame, he ALWAYS went back for more once his burt out.
Everyone knows GR's favorite holiday is the 4th of July. He teases that he spends more on the fireworks for the 4th than he does on Christmas presents and, I'm sure that's true. I tried to go shopping with him for fireworks years ago, and I've never returned. The sticker shock alone just kills me... $75 for one firework - I don't think so. But I love to watch the display, and GR's displays are getting better and better every year.
This year we were invited back to his home town to watch the Shull family firework show. Bill now has a commercial license, and with all his brothers and brother-in-laws, they spend the entire day blowing things up ... literally. The picture below is of a watermelon blowing up, and then a sampling of all the fireworks they purchased.
Their show lasted 30 minutes and it was as good as any commercial display I've seen. They had three stations set up so any lag time between blasts, was minimal. I was amazed that my kids weren't upset by the loud noises, they love it. Sam was exhausted, so he sat on my lap. You could tell he wanted to just lay his head down on my shoulder, but would keep his eyes off the fireworks. The kids LOVED it.
GR is working to get his commercial license. Someday, he hopes to put on a display like this one... he has to observe 3-4 professional shows... so thankfully it will take some time before we get to this kind of insanity.
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In the hour or so between dinner and the fireworks display, GR and Sharon took the kids outside to light off the kid daytime things... tanks and B-52s. All three of the kids definately have their fathers love of fireworks. Rebecca and Emily would light theirs with help, it took Sam until almost the end to finally go out with GR and light them. It was cute... first he'd hold the tank in the grass and simply hand GR the tank he wanted to light... then later, he'd take it out into the street and hand it to GR... then later, he'd put it on the ground... you get the picture. It was very gradual.
