4th at the Lake

We celebrated the 4th out at the lake house like we do most years, but this year was a lot different than in years past. Until this year, we've been the only ones with kids and we've always just brought them on the boat or left one adult back at the house with them during nap times. This weekend, we had our two kids, plus Caroline (3 years), and Caleb (1 year). 3 out of four dressed in their red, white, and blue isn't too bad.

We were more interested in giving the kids a good time than in tubing/skiing/wakeboarding ourselves. Addi and Jackson were always ready to go on the boat. They even learned to turn their hats around so they wouldn't go flying.

Most of our boat rides were short ones, just down to the beach so the kids could play. We spent a lot of time there letting them play in the sand, throw rocks in the water, and jump off the boat. Here's Jackson going off the boat to me. Caleb taught him how to do this but unfortunately, I didn't get a good pic of Caleb jumping off.  We set them up there and they just leaned off into our arms. We'd catch them as they hit the water, only letting them go under a little bit. Jackson would immediately turn back to the boat saying "More, more!"

Check back for video of Addi jumping off the boat, going under, and swimming back to the ladder. She grew her fins this week!

The guys got bored of kiddie splashing so they took off to prove their manhood by balancing on the buoys. The contest didn't last long because none of them could really stand on them so they started working together (way to go, boys!). Here, Jon and Greg are holding the buoy while Jeff stands up. They all took turns and swam back.

All that water play just wore little Jackson out...

...but Caleb couldn't get enough of it. (disclaimer: Jon and Caleb's red, puffy, and bloodshot eyes are the result of an unfortunate run-in with some bad sunscreen. They were NOT hung over from a hard night of celebrating.)

Addi took the jetski for a quick spin around the lake.

When we weren't in the lake or eating, the kids loved chasing bubbles around the yard. I think this is one of Jackson's cutest pictures ever.

And this is how we ended each day. Is there anything sweeter than two tired babies getting clean in the bath?