4th of July weekend

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday. Ours was a little busy. Honestly, I could use an extra day.

Thursday afternoon TPTB actually let us out a few hours early. Do I have great bosses or what? I got home and chilled a little before Tony got home. I beat him home! That never happens! When he got in we did a little packing and headed for Spring river. Well, first we hit wal-mart for a fishing license and water shoes for Tony. But after that we were on our way. Tony's folks have some land just up the road from Saddler Falls. We met up with Tony's mom, dad and "cousin" Zach at this little BBQ place in Hardy. The restaurant sits on top of the big hill just north of the red light. They have windows all along the side and you can see out into the hills. We had to wait a while to get our food but we talked and laughed and watched some dark clouds with lightning move across the hills. It started to rain on us just as we were leaving and dark was beginning to fall. About 20 minutes later we made it to our destination. Tony's uncle Jerry was already there and had built a fire -- in the rain! We sat under a canopy that was set up near the fire and drank and talked. Amber, her fiance' and a friend drove up a little before bed time. As we were all sitting out there chatting and having a good time it reminded me of my own family reunions near Spring River. Minus the beer of course.

It might sound crazy but it felt strange to be up there without my family. I've never been to Spring River when my entire family wasn't there. It took me a while to get used to the thought that my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins wouldn't be there when I awoke the next morning. Even tho I'm an adult and traveled a ton without my family... I was a little unsettled. I felt like a kid staying at a friend's house and away from home for the first time. But it helped that I was surrounded by Tony's fam. They great about including me in things and making me feel at home.

The next morning the boys were up early and headed down to the water to do a little fishing. Me? I stayed in the camper and slept till around 10 a.m. Then the guys came up from the river around 11. I think they would've stayed out fishing longer but it had rained on them all morning. Tony and I packed up what few things we brought and headed back south. We drove over to Ash Flat for some lunch because I wanted to do some sight seeing. I hadn't been up to that part of the state since that big tornado hit a few months back. After filling up on pizza we we back on the road and headed for home. And of course we managed to stop at a few firework stands on the way home. :-)

We got back to t-town around 4ish and thankfully had time for a short nap and shower before meeting up with the Condras. We met them at Colton's in J'boro at 7:30 for dinner and then we were off to find a spot to watch the big fireworks show that was happening at the Fairgrounds. We decided on a spot in the parking lot of Kohl's. We saw some folks camping out on the grassy median by the road and we wondered why we didn't think to bring lawn chairs too. Then it hit me - I had a quilt in the trunk of my car. (A wedding present from my Great Aunt Elise.) So I pulled it out and we found a spot on the grass with the other cool kids. It was the PERFECT spot.

Waiting on fireworks:

There were a few wrestling matches on the quilt. The super babies double teamed the husbands. The kids won hands down!

Then there were the fireworks!

Happy Independence Day!