4th of July

Since we were picking Jake up Thursday night, we decided to spend the weekend celebrating the 4th of July in Chattanooga with our good friends Zach, Kimberly & their kids Addie & Tyler. 

Jake & Addie after dinner Thursday night

Excuse Jake's "I've been at the lake all day" look

Friday morning, the boys went on a bike ride and us girls took the kids to the pool. The weather was so chilly that morning for July. It felt like the fall. And the water was freezing. Thankfully it slowly warmed up.

2 kids freezing, but trying to ease into the water

After their bike ride, the boys brought lunch to the pool & we had a little picnic and then swam some more. We packed up that afternoon & headed back to their house.

There was a lot of playing on their new swing set

And football playing

And watermelon eating

And annoying moms taking pictures

31 weeks pregnant!

Tyler's hair blowing in the wind

We cooked out and then came time for the fireworks

Smoke bomb

The sparklers were a huge hit 

The kids were so excited

Jake's arms in this picture!

Trying to make a J

There were larger fireworks in the distance, that we watched from the driveway

Saturday morning was the boys turn to watch the kids while Kimberly & I did some antique shopping. 

Watching cartoons

They met up with their friend Travis & his family for a swim. Jake loved the diving board! (Note: 4 weeks ago, Jake would not put his face underwater, much less jump off the side of the pool. Even in the shallow end. Between swim lessons & playing with other kids, he has gotten so brave! Robbie was shocked when Jake asked if he could jump off the diving board. He has never jumped off one. He jumped off the diving board & then swim underwater to Robbie. Considering how scared he was of the water a few weeks ago, we are so proud of him!)

Someone had given Addie a cotton candy machine, so we decided to break it out & try it.

Kimberly getting it started

This is what it looks like on the box

This was real life

No kidding

That's not an "after" picture after the kids had already eaten the cotton candy. That was all that the machine would produce. And as it was making the cotton candy, it would shoot the sugar all over the place, so we had to make the kids stand back. I'm not sure they will be using their cotton candy machine much.

Swing set also doubles as yard seating

On the way to dinner Saturday night
Poor Kimberly got stuck in the 3rd row entertaining the kids

We introduced the kids to black snakes
(They were one of my favorites as a kid)

Our little gang

We had such a fun weekend. The S family are some of our best friends and we always have such a great time together. I can't wait to the next time we have one of these weekends, there will be a new member to our gang!