Celebrating Our Nation's Birthday
Our holiday weekend started a bit early this year. Cindy-Lou came on Thursday to visit us for the weekend. I did't realize it, but she had never visited us here at the lake for the 4th. It's one of the best times of the year to be here in this part of the world.
Our celebrations began early on Saturday morning. Lovely Daughter was in the annual Ski Show. She has been on the water practicing since May. The annual ski show has become a tradition for our family for the past four years and has been a local tradition for over twenty years. The ski club is an important and active part of the community and each year over 100 people of all ages participate in the show. This year's theme was Route 66. Other than the set at the primary dock, I'm not sure how that all ties in--but what the heck.
This year L.D. was in the swivel line. The go on these huge skis that have a swiveling boot that rotates 180 degrees. First year swivelers do toe holds only. Second year swivelers do 180 degree swivels. It's impressive. The whole show is really impressive. It's not just skiing. There is music, Choreography, and an M.C. who explains the different lines and moves and who also introduces each individual skier after their act. L.D.'s line (as do most lines) takes off from the dock in a Flying Dock Start. All the girls lock arms, stand on their one ski, and are pulled from the dock simultaneously. Just getting this down is quite a feat.
The entire show lasts over two hours and features everything from the very beginners to old codgers. There are wakeboarders, barefooters, ski jumpers, pyramids--the whole gamut. Come next year and see for yourself. There are some more pictures of LD and her line here , here , here , here , and here. They're all about 600 to 700 kb, so I hope you have a fast connection.
The rest of Saturday we just vegged. I cooked up some cheese brats on the grill (sorry, no pics) and we had potato salad, cole slaw and other fourth-of-July foods. We played some Texas Hold'em with the kids. You know what they say, a family that gambles together.... Sunday was the day. We got up early. I couldn't sleep due to pre-performance jitters. Kristie and I were in a show at church. We were the narrators. BoyHead took the pictures, which are a little shakey. Dig those flag vests though.
And what Fourth of July would be complete without the requisite parade. This was the first one we've had in several years. Firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, politicians, candy, marching bands, dudes in way small cars. This parade had it all. The candy girls came and dumped a handful at my feet--I'm not quite sure what that means. Perhaps I looked a bit pekid out there in the sun.
After we had a chance to recover from the festivities, it was time to prepare for la fiesta. We invited some good friends over for dinner. They have a boy and a girl the same ages as LW and BoyHead and we've known them since our early days here some eight years ago. He is a bon vivant, raconteur, and guitar player. So, we had ourselves a minor hootenany while I cooked up the pig tenders and the womenfolk traded recipes. On the menu was: Barbeque Pig tenders (boneless pork ribs), vegetable medley, baked beans (Bush's), potatoe salad, fruit salad and watermelon. The watermelon tasted like candy. We also had about 16 types of desert. But that's girl food.
After dinner (and some more hootenany action) it was time to go to the fireworks. They shoot the fireworks out over the lake, so the water is completely full of boats. You can almost walk across the lake on the boats--there are that many. Our dinner guests graciously took us out on their boat to watch the show. Nothing better than watching the works from the water.
God Bless America
