Happy Birthday, You Old U S of A!

Happy Birthday America! We had a fun fourth of July this year. I felt very posh, as we spent it at a lake house on the gorgeous Keuka Lake. Jake and I think it's the prettiest of all the Finger Lakes, so we were thrilled when friends of ours invited us up to the lake cabin they had rented for a couple of weeks. Jake and Mark work together in the "oil fields". (As they call them, it's a Texas thing. They're totally gas fields up here.) His wife, Angie, and I have become friends, and she's my workout buddy too, at least when I can drag myself out of bed in time. It was quite the crew, since a bunch of people were invited up for the weekend, and there were a total of 11 kids (Cole was the 11th) and 12 adults, plus 3 boats and a whole lot of food. We had an absolute blast! We spent the days tooling around on the lake swimming, tubing, water-skiing and hanging out. The evenings were about bonfires, and of course fireworks on the 4th.



Cole had his first swimming experience outside of a pool, and I do believe he loved it. We got him a lifejacket for the boat, and even though the first time we put it on him he screamed bloody murder, he got used to it and pretty soon was floating and kicking all over the place. He's my little Aquarius water baby!

All that swimming wore the boys out...



Tired Boat Baby



Toe-sucking baby! Cole's new favorite snack!