July 4th Escapades

McKinney was kind enough to give us both Friday AND Monday off.

Erin, Katie and I kicked off the long weekend with a trip to Greensboro to see our girl Tay Tay.

I like using Katie as my "excuse" for going to a Taylor Swift concert.

A nice dinner at Lonestar beforehand.

As always, she put on an amazing show.

If she was about to come down with bronchitis and cancel her next 4 shows (she was) you'd never know it.

We got up Friday and headed to the river, but not before a quick stop at Crabtree at Gap (shorts for me), Abercrombie (two shirts for Katie) and Cheesecake Factory (lunch for all). Then we jammed to new tunes for 3 hours all the way to Aurora.

The outside fridge was stocked (Miller Lite anyone?).

The golf cart was decked out in her patriotic best.

Lee's PVC birds were installed.

The crab pot was emptied as the sun set.

And a bit of pier fishing as well.

Saturday was spent crabbing, because it's not Fourth of July unless you've dangled a raw chicken leg tied to string in a swampy marsh.

You shall be dinner.

Spotted on the boat ride home.

It's also not Fourth of July without a ridiculous amount of food.

And flag cake.

I got Seth to smile for a picture!

This is cute.

And this too.

All this sunscreen (arranged in order of SPF) and I still managed to get burnt.

Sunday was our annual trip to the sandbar, also a Fourth of July tradition.

Dad doesn't obey signs.

And I don't either, so I can get pretty pictures like this.

Kate lounging at the sandbar.

Some tubing action.

And being a little brave.

Sugar overseeing.

More food? Who us??

It's not the 4th without our hamburgershotdogsandhomemeadeicecream meal. Lee and I have almost perfected our ice cream recipe.

And then it was time for the big show.

Every year, it's tradition that our Canady Landing neighbors drive over and put on a patriotic parade for Jarvis Landing. (We were at the sandbar when they came through this year and missed it.) But we got together and decided to return the favor on Monday before heading home. So I present to you the inaugural Jarvis Landing July 4th parade.

And this is sure to make it into next year's family calendar. (Sugar is such a poser.)

Other items of note:

• By the end of the weekend, Erin had us all sucked into the Casey Anthony trial.
• Katie, reading from a Loaded Questions card, "If you had an enormous yak, what would you name it?" (The word was yacht.)
• Badminton. Lots of it.
• One night, we watched New Moon and Eclipse, back-to-back on Showtime. That's a lot of shirtless Jacob for one night. #notcomplaining
• I made these again. They got devoured again.
• Miraculously, no one got stung by a jellyfish, sprained their ankle or fell off a ladder this year.

Hope you and yours had a happy 4th!