The Lake

We were really sad not to travel out to Tennessee this year for the 4th of July. It has become tradition since we moved away from there and we missed our friends, our second family, this year. We are just getting too close to Macy's arrival for us to be driving 12 hours away, so hopefully next year we can make the trip!! I won't say hopefully, I will say we WILL make the trip! This year though, we decided to head down to the Powell's lake house down around Ballinger. We had a great time with the family and enjoyed being away from civilization for a few days.

The kids enjoyed chasing down the goats to feed them. Several of the goats had given birth since we had been there last and their babies were up and jumping around. They are the cutest thing you have ever seen. They just hop all over the place. It is amazing to me that something so cute can be so un-cute when all grown up.
Mark's mom made the girls matching dresses and bought the boys their 4th t-shirts so we had to get pictures of course.
We had over some of the lake neighbors that live over 2 miles away, it is definitely spread out down there, and had a shrimp boil and a pickin' on the front porch. That always makes for a good time. We enjoyed their company and they hung out with us after dark when the fireworks went off on the other side of the lake. Mark had picked up some too before we headed out there so we had some sparklers for the kids and some roman candles and some other things. It definitely did not come close to what we usually get to see and do in TN thanks to Bubba, but it made for a fun 4th. The kids actually enjoyed the fireworks this year and Ella keeps asking to "play" fireworks everyday. She also likes to add that the red ones are her favorite. (ignore Ella's pink shoes in the picture. I forgot to bring her sandals down to the lake. oops!)Enjoying the Star cookies while the guys play music for us on the front porch.