4th of July

This 4th of July weekend was especially memorable because our Luxembourg family was in town. We spent two different days on the boat (I think the last time we were on the boat was when they were here two years ago) and we even took Riley to see fireworks... and she didn't freak out!

Jesse's brother and his family came in late Thursday night and stayed at our place so Friday we headed over to my in laws to hang out with them. We ate and spent time on the boat and enjoyed each other's company. 

On the 4th we planned more eating and boating and just hanging out. There was a boat parade on Prior Lake at 1:00 which we went to, but sort of missed. There were boats decorated driving around, but they ended up driving away from us so I feel like it didn't happen. That was ok, because some of those boats had water cannons and I'm not sure our entire boat (Riley) would have liked to be hit with a water cannon. 

While we were in this area the boys jumped into the water (and eventually my sister in law Susee, Riley and myself) and before you know it all the other boats were gone. We hadn't really noticed since we were having so much fun. We were all pretty amazed how Riley asked to go in the water (and would get out, but then go in again over and over). We didn't have to talk her into it, but I guess it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise because she seems more open to trying things when she sees her cousins doing them.

After going back to the house to eat we headed out again on the boat and stopped at some friend's of my in laws.

Imitating certain tourist pictures

Jesse was squatting in the yard a lot so I made some comment about how he looked like a monkey and her ran with it. He asked me not to put the picture on Facebook, but never mentioned the blog...

Riley spent a bunch of time at the edge of the water soaking her skirt and playing. It was like she was a different child and made me want to live on a lake where she could play on the beach all the time.

There was a trampoline float that the boys played on while the adults chatted on shore.

We headed back to the house and ate dinner before checking out the fireworks. Everyone else was headed back on the boat, but we weren't confident that Riley would tolerate that since she's been freaked out by fireworks in the past. She said she wanted to see them this year so we decided to go to the Aquila fireworks by our house. By the time we got home it was pretty late so we weren't able to get a spot up close, but that was probably ok for these first official fireworks for Riley.

We parked over by Knollwood mall and were really only able to see the fireworks that were up high. I really wanted to try and get some good pictures of them, but we were in a terrible spot as there were about 20 phone lines, and because of construction, there were flashing street lights just below the fireworks. I still used the opportunity to practice and feel like they turned out pretty good for my first time.

And that was our 4th of July. I'm excited about next year now that we know Riley enjoyed the fireworks and was able to stay up late without too much of a breakdown. Too bad it's a whole year away.