Party on July 4th

Every year on the Fourth of July, the Longshores have a fabulous barbecue at their gorgeous lake house. Grandma and Grandpa are always invited, and so we are allowed to tag along! The Longshore's house faces the lake, . . .
. . . with an absolutely spectacular view!!!

But for Leia (and now Annie, too) this little dollhouse is the highlight of the party. : ) It has been here every single year since Leia Rose was born, . . . and one year it's going to be gone. The Longshore's grandchildren are slowly growing up, of course.
Annie also had a BLAST with the Longshore's dog named "Greta." : ) Annie got a total kick out of it when Greta would lick Annie's face! Annie would then blow a perpetual raspberry and rub her face all over with dog hair and slime. (Yuck!) Would I have let Leia Rose do this at this age? ; )
The girls had lots of fun together tapping tunes on the table. (Just another good representation of how well the girls are playing together these days.)
And at one point, Annie and I went out back to swing on the Longshore's big swing, . . .
And play in their Amish-made, real wood, real roofed, one-room farmhouse!!! This sucker was fully furnished, . . . and even had windowboxes and a GRILL! ; ) And it reminded us, yet again, how it just might feel to be filthy rich. ; )

Suddenly, a beautiful rainbow appeared above the lake!
And Leia ran down to the lawn in order to see it!
And the girls watched it fade away together, hand in hand.
But then they discovered that, even among all of the toys of the rich, the funnest thing of all was to romp on the huge lawn! : ) Dear God, let us always delight in Your simple pleasures. : )
But the highlight of the experience for Brian is pretty simple: the spectacular, mustard-based barbecue pulled-pork of a whole hog that had slow cooked all day! : ) And even though Annie kept calling it "chick-chick," which is what she calls chicken, she slurped it up like a little Southern girl should. ; ) (And if you look close you can see the HUGE raised barbecue pit poised with Uncle Alan in front of it, in the background.) Eating is always our last activity of the day, of course, because it was around 7 and we had to book it to town to watch the fireworks! : )