4th of July

We hope everyone had a great 4th of July - because we certainly did! We headed down to the Cowan Lake house on Friday evening - surprisingly with no traffic issues so that was a miracle to start with. We started off with a BBQ - and just relaxed and unpacked. Saturday morning we hit the lake early for some tubing and skiing before the lake got really choppy - which happened relatively quickly due to the GREAT weather we had all weekend. So after about an hour on the lake we headed back and just hung out at the cove and on the dock. Lots of sun - even Jenn and Tim mentioned that I even look tan - which never happens - I just burn randomly. Saturday evening we went to the Slenker house for their annual fish fry. Catfish, crappie, walleye - it was all there for the taking along with some excellent sides! Since the kids had been out playing all day it involved some crashing early - so we had to leave only after a couple of hours. Megan had "lake ass" as we like to describe it and wasn't feeling so great. Then due to the fried fish/deviled eggs/beer/etc. the men had some room clearing aromas of their own - thankfully the ladies went to the outlet mall to return a few things and missed out on that.

Sunday morning was about the same - we got out on the boat early to ski - only to be surrounded by more idiots on the water not paying attention to what they were doing. When it was all said and done and we headed back to the house - as Dave said - it was like playing Frogger. We did a little swimming then headed to the Resnik house to cove it out for a while - one word for you there - Margaritas!!! A storm threatened - but all that did was clear off most of the lake so we had a smoother ride home. Dave made a fabulous pork loin, Megan ate all of my corn on the cob - which if you know me, I love corn on the cob so sharing was rough - thankfully there were extras. We took the boat out to watch fireworks at Captain Ron's only to get rained on but still saw the show then the rain stopped and the Cowan Fireworks Festivities began. Of course we have front row seats - they are more like directly under the fireworks so you are looking straight up. Megan wanted to go to bed halfway through but Abby made it to the end.

Monday we all hit the road early but got a few pictures of the girls in the 4th outfits.


Ashley, Megan, and Abby


Hugging it out for the camera.

1st attempt with Allison in a picture.

2nd attempt with Allison in a picture - she just wasn't a happy camper that afternoon, it was time for a nap.

Abby and Ashley - best buds photo.

We loaded up the boat and the kids and headed back to Columbia - only to get to clean the boat - it was due for a wash. Tim is fishing with the Papke men in WI this week so if there are any big fish photos - I'll let you know. It will be hard to live up to last year's catches. Grandma Papke will be heading down to Columbia for the week to spend some time with the girls. They couldn't be more excited that there are 0 more sleeps until she is here.

Happy 4th to all!