4th of July Fun

We spent the holiday weekend in Indiana!  We left around 1 pm on Wednesday and got there around dinner time.  We met Brian's parents, along with his aunt, uncle, and cousins, at McDonald's and then went back to his parents' house afterwards.  On Thursday, Brian and I went to Shipshewana for the day while the girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  We went to the flea market and a couple stores in town.  We came home with a lot of neat things!  On Friday, we drove out to Brian's cousin's farm for a visit.  We all then came back to Brian's parents' house to start the holiday festivities.  We roasted hot dogs, ate some delicious food, played cards, and then headed over to the lake to watch the fireworks.  Saturday was a day to sleep in. :-)  Brian's mom and I did a little shopping before lunch.  After lunch, we headed back over to the farm for another visit with Brian's cousin.  We left a little before dinner time so Brian could drop me off at a local restaurant to meet a couple of my grade school friends for a drink.  We stayed for lunch on Sunday and then headed back home!  It was a very fun weekend!

Brian's parents got a camper, so the girls and Brian slept in it on Thursday evening.

There was a bed at each end.

Feeding the baby pony that Brian's cousin was keeping (along with its mother and aunt) for a neighbor.

Watching and petting the ponies.

Petting a baby chicken.

Swinging on the hammock.

Clara drew with sidewalk chalk as Abbey the dog watched.  Clara is normally afraid of dogs, but she loved Abbey. :-)

One of the best things about growing your own food is being able to eat it directly from its source!  Gabrielle eats a mulberry off the tree.

A bird made its nest right in the crook of the big tree stump in the bottom of this picture.  Brian's cousin said they have found a Bluebird family and Baltimore Oriole on their property this year.

These two love playing together!

Some severe storms blew through the area two days before we got there (85+ mp winds) and blew several trees down on their property.  One of them was a walnut tree.  We took home a few stumps to make stools out of them.  Stay tuned for pictures of those later!

Swinging on the tree swing.

You haven't played well enough unless your feet are dirty in the end!

We took a family picture before eating dinner.

Roasting hot dogs.

Eating dinner on the quilt.

Two of my favorite fireworks pictures from the evening.  I love the silhouettes in this one.

I love how the light from the fireworks highlights the front of the people sitting below.

Brian and I found sky lanterns at the flea market and sent one up on Saturday evening.

It started to rise but then came back down and landed on the end of a tree branch.

Brian ended up shaking the tree branch to get it off.  It floated a little bit more but then came down again.  It definitely didn't float for as long as it advertised but it was neat to see!