First 4th of July in VA

This was our first 4th of July here in Charlottesville.  2014 was in Medford, Oregon right before we moved out here and 2015 was in Utah. We had a couple of different ideas on what we wanted to do and had made fun plans to go on a hike with some friends but the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms so that was scratched. I still hope we can go with them another day.  We also had plans to have a BBQ with the Lenox's and do a few fireworks and that went on as planned and was a fun night.  It was really weird to have a rainy 4th of July with the high being around 75. We started off with donuts at Duck Donuts then came back for some fun Patriotic learning times here.

I love this dress I found for Lydia at TJ Maxx, its The Children's Place for 7.99!! She was so cute when I showed it to her.  She keeps asking me to wash it because she can't wait to wear it again.

Patriotic Learning activities are always some of my favorites. 

Around 3:00 there was a break in the storm and Mark commented that he really wanted to go kayaking so we loaded up the kayaks and hightailed it over to the lake.  The Shaw's have been out of town and they kindly let us borrow their matching kayak so we could go out together which was really fun.  I was not sure about going because of the weather and because we planned to be at the BBQ between 4:30 and 5:00 but they didn't mind if we got there later and it was fun to be outside. We had the lake all to ourselves for the first little while then a few families showed up to go fishing. We spent a good amount of time trying to get a picture of us all in our kayaks using the timer on Mark's phone and setting it on the dock.  This was slightly stressful since the dock is above water  and all but it was funny to see some of the pictures.  Mark did a great job hustling to get in the frame and Jared and I did our best to not float to far out.  In the end we asked one of the families to take our picture when we got back to the other dock. I am glad Mark was so insistent that we go out.

We had a fun time eating, visiting and paying games with the Lenox's. They head out of town on the 15th or so and won't be back till mid August we will miss them! After we ate we had our traditional root beer floats and set off some sparklers and a few fireworks.

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This may be my new favorite picture of her. 

This was her original pose. I'm not even sure she knew Mark took her picture. 

We sure appreciate all that we enjoy living here.