Fabulous Fourth!

Our holiday weekend was packed with good company, good friends, and good times! On the third we went to some friends annual party and had a blast. Their property is located high up over looking Lake Travis and Carlos and Charlies where the best Austin fireworks are held. The venue made for the best firework display I have ever seen and I loved watching the kids run around with their friends with thier glow-in-the-dark paraphernalia (in a safe environment - in a wrought iron fenced in area over looking the fireworks and cliff). After it was dark I told Schuyler I liked watching the boats almost as much as the fireworks and she didn't get it. I said it was like someone took thousands of glow in the dark bracelets and threw them all over the lake - it was really spectacular.

We woke up and enjoyed the Point Venture parade go by our house. For those of you that don't know it is mostly a parade of decorated golf carts, throwing lots of loot, watched from the shade of our oaks. Not quite the production of the Pawtuxet Village Gaspee Days Parade we use to love as it went by our RI house, but a very intimate fun time none-the-less (especially if you are under the age of six)! The parade was followed by our POA hosting their annual carnival type BBQ lunch. Out of all our kids, Sawyer was the only one brave enough to go down the huge water slide (sorry no picture of that), but the kids enjoyed the dry jumpy house, the clown, spin art, and of course slushies!

The kids all had naps (Schuyler's annual nap), then we headed to the beach for the night. Being at the Point Venture beach on the fourth was like Fort Lauderdale during Spring Break (as I would imagine). It was crazy! People everywhere, tents everywhere, trucks and boats everywhere, dogs, kids, floaties, flags........! A lot of people left before the sun went down - their loss! After the sun set we enjoyed an intimate family setting (Curtis, Bryan, Janiece and families and our friends Robyn and Benny and family). At that point John and Bryan put on an awesome display of fireworks matching that I remember from my childhood (except this was on a nice sandy beach). I loved the endless fountains and enjoyed watching the kids do sparklers! It felt like we were the only ones on the beach, but yet we got to enjoy the fireworks displayed by all the other beachcombers. It was a very memorable Independence Day - celebrating and enjoying our freedom!Other than the fun times described, we got to enjoy John, Janiece and JD all weekend; we must have gone to the pool and/or beach everyday; and we loved Curtis being off work for five days!

Some comments I heard during the fireworks:

Morgan = God made the fireworks, aren't they awesome?
Schuyler = No, God made the people that made the fireworks, right Dad?
Graydon: 'See 'em (like I see them - over and over), cool, wow, woah
Morgan: That is my favorite one (commented after ever one), that is so cool - right?
Schuyler: That is so totally awesome! The fireworks picked up the stars.

A weekend highlight: Watching Sawyer and Graydon falling off their child size chairs into the sand - laughing and laughing - over and over!

All the pictures from the fun filled holiday weekend can be found on our shutterfly account - which I am going to try and update more due to my recent mishap of accidentally deleting five months of pictures and videos (can you say sad and upset). http://burke5family.shutterfly.com/ - password is the name of our dog with the first letter capitalized.