Klay Family: A Fun Fourth!

What a 4th of July celebration this year! We started celebrating the weekend before by heading up to Grammy's house on the lake. Uncle Matt, Auntie Jill (and our growing baby cousin in her tummy), Uncle Ben, Auntie Erin, Kyra, Bennett, our family and Grammy all squeezed into the house for a fun weekend. One of our usual stops is the pub on the lake. It's hard to see but the sign behind us says, "Sorry, We're Open!" We think that is pretty funny.

With lots of busy boys in the family (we are begging Auntie Jill for a girl cousin), it was a weekend full of skiing, boating, swimming, and more!

I am a brave little waterskiier out on the water. I am still using the trainer and not the wooden skiis yet~ maybe next summer I will give those a whirl.

With long days out on the water and very little time for a long nap, Cooper caught up on his sleep wherever possible including Grammy's 4th of July picnic.

Uncle Matt is a show director and amazing waterskiier so he insisted on going to the local waterski show to see if there was any competition (and no there wasn't as his team in the southern part of this state are national champs). In case you didn't know, Daddy skiied on the waterski team for many years, even Mommy joined for several years before work, distance, and some nasty injuries were too much. We enjoyed the show, especially some of the exciting falls.

Uncle Matt and Auntie Jill stayed just the weekend and had to head home as Jill worked on Monday. Before they left, they gave us a late b-day gift they ordered online...a TALKING dog named "DUG" from our favorite movie, Up. It is hilarious (SQUIRREL!), fuzzy, and doesn't shed or poop. What a great gift!

Cooper and I ~~fight~~ take turns driving the pontoon on the lake. With Bennett in the mix (he is one year older than me), we really have to practice patience and manners. With the ridiculous heat, we spent most of our time zooming on the lake in search for a breeze or else in the water with our toys.

Because it is tradition, we hit the city parade in 100 degree weather. We stayed long enough to watch the military fly over, the bands (military and high school), saw the Tin Lizzies (Mom's favorite) and had rootbeer, freezies and loads of Tootsie Rolls and candy.

We lasted 45 minutes of the 1 hour and 15 minute parade, not too bad! Mommy prepped Cooper for the fire engines and noisy trucks. He took her advice very seriously and plugged his ears the entire parade.

The minute we got back from the parade, we hit the lake. As the week progressed, I started to jump off the pontoon into the middle of the lake. This was another first as I usually waited until we docked at an island so that I could walk into the water. We also had fun swimming under the pontoon (NO WORRIES....keys were out of the ignition and we were in a calm bay). Can you see the huge smile on my face under here?!?!

The 4th arrived and Uncle Ben decided to go pyro this year. He is a bit excited for the endless exits full of firework stands. The kids enjoyed whipper snaps and sparklers during the day and that night, Uncle Ben went into full firework display mode. We had a blast (no pun intended)!

We title these photos of Cooper throwing snappers as "WARRIOR COOPER!" He was a maniac with these guys. If they didn't snap when he whipped them, he would race after them and stomp with all of his might. It was a bit frightening to see that kind of aggression!

Speaking of our little warrior... he had his 2 year check up before our 4th weekend and he is 36 inches tall (90%) and 29 pounds (50%). The warrior had 2 shots, one in each leg and besides sticking his lower lip out, he didn't even cry, shocking the nurse and Mommy. What a tough big boy.

I think this expression was for my mom as she constantly nagged us to keep the sparklers as far away from our bodies and each other as possible. Fortunately, no one was burned or even came close. Whew, another successful year of fireworks!

On one of our last days, we asked Cooper if he wanted to ski since he seems quite interested in Bennett and I on the trainer and the new slalom skiier, Kyra (age 10!) Cooper said he wanted to ski, so we put that to the test.....

See ya Mom! I am heading out to ski, be back in one large loop.

Yup, he did it. Even better than me as I did this when I had just turned 2 but on the ski boom. He went long line and when they landed, he signed and yelled "MORE!!!!!" Hopefully by now, you haven't called social services on our family.

Bennett and I ended our holiday week by fishing on the dock together. We didn't catch much, just one lonely fish and a bazillion mosquito bites. I love having my cousins nearby and we loved our fun holiday at the lake!