Luke Caught His 1st Fish & Other July 4th Tall Tales

I’m back from the respite. So happy to be back and so grateful for the break! You know how sometimes you know you need to unplug and get away, but you don’t realize just how much until you’re there? Yes. That.

The 3yo did catch his first fish. There was much rejoicing. Of course, I had *just* taken my camera inside the condo and completely missed all proof. But trust me, it was great. The Mr. and Will also caught fish. Poor Scott, I only got a photo of his “little” catch.

Over the Fourth of July, we spent two days at the lake with some sweet friends, the Nash’s. Felicia and I were college roommates. Oh, and did I mention that her husband is an ER doctor? Yes, we vacation with insurance now. Under Todd’s watchful eye, we didn’t even have to bust out a bandaid with eight kids. I think that’s pretty darn impressive.

There was pool time, lake time, a boat parade, hot dogging, fishing, cocktail drinking, eating, laughing, more eating, fire dancing, s’more roasting, fireworks and some really, really fabulous memories. Mostly, I felt relaxed. I think I picked up my phone a few times to take pictures, but that was it. So lovely.

At one point, the two littles were napping, the dads took all the bigs for ice cream and Felish and I just hung on the lake deck and talked about life. I can’t recall the last time I did that. Then, we promptly grabbed a cold one, relaxed in the water and talked more life. Doubly lovely.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the fire dancers as much as I did. But, whoa. That was impressive. I’ll save the quote of the week for tomorrow, but wow. Katy Perry’s song takes on a whole new meaning now. Adding to the awesomeness of the evening was watching Luke jam out to the song while the fire flew. He managed to win over the 16yo girls sitting behind us. Uh oh. After fire dancing, we hopped on the boat and sat in the middle of the lake with nothing but water between us and those spectacular fireworks. I’ve seen them lots of places, but I have to say, this one may just crack the top three. After the show, we took the five-minute boat ride back to the condo and put everyone to bed.

Scott and I have never been huge 4th of July fanatics. I do love me some America, especially when sung by Mr. Shiny Shirt himself, Neil Diamond, but the sparklers and fireworks and traffic to see them have never been our gig. This year it was different. When Felicia called and invited us, I immediately said yes. Maybe my heart knew we needed to get out of Austin and enjoy some of God’s creation, with good friends, to boot.

Either way, it sure felt good to celebrate America’s 237th birthday. And, yes, I had to have my 12yo calculate that for me. Math is not my gift.

The perfect end to the time away was grabbing a coconut cream pie from the Bluebonnet Cafe in Marble Falls on our way home. Todd, Felicia and gang – thank you for being the most gracious hosts. We’ll be back for the fajitas. Oh, and your company, too!