A Very Memorable 4th of July

I really do think that we had the best 4th of July ever.  The only thing that would've made it better would've been if my family could've been there too.  Jeremy's whole family was able to come together to spend the 4th in Manistee.

 

This is Sarah and I on the ride to Manistee.  The only bummer part of the trip is the long distance. 

Skipping ahead to Saturday, this is part of the family at the powwow.  The best weather we have ever had at the powwow.  Warm with a cool breeze.  We stayed the whole day this year, which we've never done before.

The kids taking pictures at the hotel on the day we left. 

Jacob and Sarah at the powwow enjoying a snow cone.  They both have on their new Jingtamok powwow tshirts.  I'm assuming in honor of Lakeview they both picked purple shirts.

Jolie and Uncle Marty in full regalia.  Uncle Marty used to be the head dancer but physically he just doesn't feel like hes up to that anymore.  He's still out there dancing and inspiring other dancers.  Jolie proudly displayed her outfit that was mostly made by Nana. 

On the actual 4th, Joel had this brillant idea that we would go to this beach on Lake Michigan and have a picnic and bonfire.  I was skeptical because I've never been anywhere on Lake Michigan where you can have bonfires on the beach.  I'd only ever seen that in movies.  You know the ones, usually they break out in song and dance and theres usually surfing and romance lol. 

But we all packed up and followed Joel's van.  We passed through this little town that had a resort that looked JUST LIKE the resort in Dirty Dancing.  I swear that they could've filmed it there.  We came upon a parking lot and walked through some tall beach grass and sand dunes and ta dah!!!!  There was the lake...and on that lake they had fire pits!!

There were other groups of people out there too.  They all seemed to belong out there.  Lets just say there were men in white jeans sporting jean jackets and wearing pastel-y shirts with boat shoes on just waiting to break out in song. 

We claimed a fire pit, put down blankets and made ourselves at home.  That evening at about 9 the fireworks started.  Back and forth people were setting off amazing fireworks.  A free show!  haha

It was so chilly, probably the coldest 4th of July that I remember.

My nephew Nathan and I enjoying some holiday cookies.  We were sneaking them and Nathan thought that was pretty funny.  He's not very good at keeping a secret though.  He kept telling his mom "Aunt Nicole and I are sneaking cookies"

Just enjoy Nana in the background.......hmmmm

The Buschlen 5.

Just the 3 rotten kids.

My sisters and I. 

Love them both!

We just had a great weekend.  I'm so thankful that we were all together and everyone was healthy and the kids got along so well. 

I couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July.

Independance Day Holiday

We spent 5 days up in Bay City at the state park this year over the 4th of July.  It was so hot!

Thank God we had air in our camper.

Our little Tucker is getting to be a pretty good camper. 

It was so nice having so many family members out there camping also.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Den, Amber and Chad, Josh and Allison and even mom and Terry were there in their new 5th wheel.  A lot of sitting around complaining about the heat.

On Saturday we went downtown to watch the 50th anniversary of the Bay City fireworks.  They were shooting off 50,000 fireworks in 50 minutes. 

Jacob and Chase hanging out before the fireworks started.

Sarah, a little nervous about the fireworks.  She's not a huge fan of the noise so she wasn't too sure she wanted to be there.

My cousin Ambers daughter Hailie, cutie.

Sarah was responsible for keeping her in the circle of chairs that we made so she wouldn't escape. 

I've never seen fireworks as amazing as these.  I have no idea how they are going to top that next year.  I'm happy to say we were there for the 50th anniversary.  I told my kids that maybe they'll bring their children and grandchildren to the 100th anniversary in another 50 years.

As nervous as she was she was able to take photos on her new ipod touch.  She has like a hundred photos on her ipod.  When it was all done, she said "that wasn't so bad"  So maybe we've overcome the fear of fireworks.  Maybe we can actually stay and watch the fireworks at Disney now.

My handsome son, with his crazy face and sparklers.

hanging out in the camper, out of the heat!  It was so unbearable!

We were able to sneak in a trip to the Turkey Roost with the Buschlen side of the family. 

mmmmm we love it there.

Joel and Sherry

After three days in the heat we finally went in search of a beach.  Terry suggested this little lake in Alger.  It was so nice.  We put our chairs right in the water and hung out for a couple hours.  It was so nice to cool off.

Lots of amazing memories were made over this holiday.  Being with family makes me so happy.  I wish that we all lived close.  Although if we did maybe I wouldn't appreciate being with them all the time. 

Happy 4th of July

Love

These two kids amaze me.  Honestly as much as they can drive me nuts, they are the best kids.

Sometimes I sit back and remember when they were babies and thinking that having a 12 year old and a 9 year old seemed like so far down the road. 

I find myself sad that they're growing up but really enjoying them at this age.  I love going places with them and discovering new things.  I love to listen to Jacobs voice as it is changing into a deep young mans voice.  I love to listen to Sarah in the back seat sing every other word to a song because she doesn't know the whole song. 

What I love most is that even though they fight like cats and dogs sometimes I do see them watch out for each other and care about what is happening to the other. 

I pray that they'll always be friends and take care of each other.