4th of July

We spent the 4th of July holiday at Lake Oconee with my parents. We were unable to go to St. George Island this year for our annual beach trip because Josh was in Hungary on a mission trip, so this was our vacation of sorts. All of us were excited to get away from home, spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa, and hit the sun and water. It was, as most vacations, filled with highs and lows. Good days and not so good. More good than bad, more high than low, but let me tell you...the low...was just about as low as it gets.

Maranda came with us this weekend. I made sure that my mom knew about her peanut allergy, and she was careful not to plan anything peanut related for meals or desserts. We routinely eat peanut butter at our house, and she is over at our house often, and not once has she had a bit of trouble. One night at dinner, Charlotte had a peanut butter cracker. I made sure that the table was washed down afterwards, and I was careful to wash her hands. After I washed her hands, she pulled at the straw in Maranda's drink, and I thought nothing of it. Until hours later when we had to call 911 as Maranda started having an allergic reaction. She carries an epi-pen, so we got that out, and the only one brave enough to administer it was my dad. He is usually cool under pressure, and has actually saved two people. By administering the Heimlich maneuver,though, and NOT an epi-pen. As obviously displayed when he administered it to his thumb and not to a wheezing, swelling Maranda. One ambulance ride and a two hour wait in the most pleasant emergency room I have ever been in, and she was fine. She went home with her mom for the night and came back the next day. We can laugh about it now, but at the time it was scary! More lows included a power outage and a septic tank incident that forced anyone who wanted a shower to go to the Lake Club to take one, but I have no pictures of that and quite honestly, do not want to remember those as the highlights of our trip!

So....on to the good parts....

Josh caught a huge fish off the dock.

(sorry for the poor picture quality...still trying to get a handle on this manual focus!)

Fireworks at the Ritz

We went by boat and were able to view the fireworks from the water. It was a gorgeous night and they were beautiful!

Josh and Maranda (post peanut trauma!)

Maddy and Sarah
Dad/Grandpa driving the boat (Grandma most graciously volunteered to stay home with Charlotte--thanks Mom!)

Daryl and Hannah. We were so glad that Daryl was able to take a break from work and join us for a while. And we were so glad that Hannah decided she was brave enough to come with us!

The first year we took her to fireworks, she spent the show with her head buried in Daryl's neck. The next year, we didn't see a big show, but set off some fireworks with some friends at church, and she spent the evening cowering in the church nursery tearfully refusing to go outside. This year, she watched and "liked the colors, but the sound was too loud."

Big improvement!

This was obviously her trip to be brave and show us how grown up she has become, because she actually went tubing too! Josh talked Grandma and Grandpa into buying a double innertube, so that two people could ride at a time. She decided all by herself that she wanted to join the fun!

Sarah, getting ready to go out on the boat

And Maddy

And Hannah, all ready to go!

The whole crew, waiting for Grandpa

Hannah, getting on the innertube with Maranda

and off she goes!

Char Char showed her patriotic spirit with a cute outfit and officially declared her independence from baby food this weekend. She went the whole weekend without one bite of baby food!

Hannah with a sparkler--my how far she has come! She only would take this one from me and then hid in the corner, afraid, but still....baby steps!

And finally, a picture that Hannah requested that I put in here. She thought it was "cute" and we should "really take a picture of this cute thing." She even went to get the camera and everything.

The girls stayed at the lake for the rest of the week, so it's just Josh, the little girls and Daryl and me for the week. Hoping to get a lot of cleaning and organizing done this week before we head into the final week before I'm back to work.

Summer has flown by!