Let's Hear it for the Letter F!!

FUN...

FAMILY...

FOOD...

FIRE...

FIREWORKS...

FUNKY TAN LINES...

FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Not too many years ago my Aunt Martha and Uncle Mark invested in a lake house at Possum Kingdom lake and since then it has become a little bit of a tradish to spend the 4th of July at the lake... last year we took a year off, SO this year you can only imagine how excited we were to introduce Caden to the fabulousness that is a Fourth of July spent at PK!

We left early Friday morning and returned home yesterday afternoon, so it was a full four day, three night adventure for the Cox Fam!

When we arrived at the lake the first thing we had to do of course was CHECK IT OUT. Caden was pretty pumped to find that my cousin Kyle had a ukulele! The lake?! Who cares! There is a guitar look-alike here and I AM ON IT! He's obsessed!

Kyle was sweet enough to let Caden try it out for a bit... and of course it was a once you pop you can't stop thing. The ukulele ended up helping us several times get Caden to take a break! That and KK's iphone were lifesavers! The Chade DOES NOT STOP, but like all of us he needs to every once in a while, especially after a FULL day outside... thank you Mr. Mac for creating iphones and their splendid applications... for you Mommy's out there that have an iphone like KK, Caden LOVES the Peek-a-boo Barn App... it's SO cute! Your kiddos will LOVE it!

Okay enough of the infomercial... back to the weekend at the lake...

But first, more pics of Caden strumming the "guitar."

Justin and I decided to invest in a bigger blow-up pool for the lake so that Caden could have a place that doesn't require a life jacket to hang out! This pool was the best $15 we have ever spent! WE are going to be taking it with us to the beach in a few days and to the river later this summer...it is fantastic! Caden had SUCH a fun time!

Nothing like eating your goldfish in the pool! :)

On Saturday morning we took Caden out for an early-morning boat ride. We watched Daddy ski and even though I wasn't appropriately dressed I decided I couldn't pass up the pretty water so I stripped off my shirt and skied in my shorts and sports bra! It was great!!

Like most dudes, Caden is all about the gear! He wanted to DRIVE the entire time we were on the boat! Push the buttons, honk the horns, even steer the wheel! In time, in time!

This is the only picture of Caden and I taking a lake break that came out! I'm looking down but Chade looks good and that is ALL that matters! :)

Each morning at the lake we all sit around on the back porch and drink our morning coffee. Well, we all know that Chade LOVES his coffee so he was in heaven with so many people to beg for coffee from. Martha, Gram, KK, Mommy and Daddy all shared. I think Albi was the only one and that was just because he drinks it black and Caden doesn't want any part of that! Finally, I decided what the heck let's just make him his own cup... after he was done drinking it he decided it was also good to wash your hands in... nice!

During the day Caden and I did a lot of swinging in the hammock swings, playing in the pool, walking up and down the stairs to and from the dock, playing in the grass, taking nature walks, etc. etc. He had a BLAST! Of course there were plenty of other of people to keep him entertained! He loved hanging out with the older boys and of course loved getting to hang out with his Kk, Albi and Great Gram! Fortunately the weather was not too hot because of the hurricane and even better than the cooler temps was that the rain held off too so we spent the majority of our weekend outdoors, just the way we like it! What a treat!!

I can't remember what year we started doing fireworks off the dock, but that has become a tradish too. The boys go to the local firework stand and buy a sack full and come back and plot their course! This year was probably one of the best and definitely the most memorable by far as we had some close calls with Smokey the Bear! I'm afraid Smokey the Bear would not have been very happy with our fire displays... notice I said FIRE not fireworks! The fireworks were great the FIRE... well it was interesting!

We had this great idea... see picture below...

(EXCUSE THE SPACING... it's all screwed up and it won't let me fix it!)
We were lining up all of our sparklers along the porch, lining the way... then we were devising a plan to light them all at the same time and take pictures... WELL... have y'all ever tried to light about 40 sparklers at the same time? NO?! Well, it's really hard!

So after a few tries using various methods, the two college boys who were hanging with us for the weekend decided that all we needed was an Indiana Jones style torch... so off they went!

Not 5 minutes later they rounded the side of the house and pranced onto the porch with TWO HUGE man made torches! Indiana Jones had NOTHING on these torches. They were made with towels, a large tree branch and then they were DOUSED in gasoline. The gasoline was SO strong that we could smell it before they got to the porch! SO they lit the first torch and HUGE, HOT, FLAMES ignited the towel head, forcing College Boy #1 to throw the torch to the ground to let it "calm down."

Meanwhile back on the porch... we were all scattering! I was running to the water hose KNOWING we were going to have to take action and everyone else was shouting STOP, DROP and ROLL!

Somewhere in the midst of all of this, College Boy #2 decided to light the second torch using the HUGE, HOT FLAMES from torch number one. In the background there was a chorus of NO!!! STOP!! DON'T LIGHT IT! But it was if it was in slow motion and the shouts were hushed... THEN in a blaze of furry torch number 2 was lit!!

Now we have TWO, HUGE, HOT FLAME throwing torches...

Luckily, College Boy #1 and College Boy #2 had devised a plan just in case the torch exercise went South... and well I don't think you need me to tell you that it in fact DID go South! So the big exit strategy was RUN FOR THE LAKE! Well, the lake is down a fairly good-sized HILL... so it wasn't going to be a fast release, but it was their plan nonetheless.

As College Boy #1 and #2 were running for their lives down the hill College Boy #2 shoves his torch a bit higher in the air and SHOUTS... "AMERICA!!!"

We all shout back... "AMERICA!!!"

Or was it "RUNNNNNN!"

I can't remember now...BUT regardless we felt patriotic!

With only one minor drop in the grass and a little bit of quick firefighter action from College Boy #1 the torches were safely deposited into the lake... and other than the burn spot in the grass and on the concrete and maybe a few burnt knuckles all else was good in the world!

Except that we NEVER did get our row of sparklers lit...

BUT we did get to take home a SPECTACULAR story! And it is a story that will connect the people who shared it for a lifetime...oh the memories a torch can create!

Unfortunately for the Chade he missed the torch action, but we told him of the grandeur (fear) the next morning!

And I bet y'all can guess what he said...

What a 4th of July... What a 4th of July!

And to that we replied...

The Best Ever!