Friday, July 8, 2011

Lots of celebrations!


Of course, everybody celebrates the fourth of July, but it seems like we've been celebrating one thing or another for several months now. Graduations and birthdays especially.









We were happy to see Nathan and Nina walk and get their AA diplomas, although Nina technically graduated last year -- but at 9 months pregnant she didn't feel up to sitting through Commencement Exercises. The upside is she got to walk with Nathan this year, and that was more cool. Eric also graduated, but chose not to go to Commencement, there's this girl that is way more interesting than boring speeches....



Eric and the aforementioned girl, Katie, did join us for the annual fourth of July lazy day at the Park, where we sat around, snacked, and enjoyed Lee's fast wakeboarding boat, or our more hands-on canoe and kayak. Eric tried to protect Katie from our intrusive camera by the old watermelon-as-a-shield trick while Ben distracted us by showing us how cool his slice of watermelon was.








Meanwhile, back on the beach, Benny and Ephraim are enjoying their cousins and the water. Note how Ephraim is enjoying a full body experience with the sand, and Benny is careful and clean. We can already see that they are going to need a line down the middle of any room they end up sharing!








Dad and Ben making waves with canoe and kayak. Ben was literally making circles around the more sedate canoe.











Later in the evening, we enjoyed another picnic as we waited for the fireworks. Eric tried the old bag-of-chips-as-a-shield trick, but this time protected himself from the camera. Zixu and a couple of his friends also joined us for chicken salad or tuna sandwiches and donuts. As usual, the fireworks were gorgeous. (Also, we must have chicken salad sandwiches more often!






Yes, a good time was had by all! Yay!