In 2005, I was far from being the outdoorsy type. I loved to sit around and watch telelvision and eat mostly - especially in the heat of the Summer months. I could usually be dragged to family gatherings, and of course I still loved vacations, but for the most part, I liked the cool indoors much better than the sticky outdoors. Sometime in the early days of the Summer, Carolyn and I attended the La Comedia presentation of Footloose, for example. But the Fourth of July weekend of that year somehow was a notable exception. I still recall the fondness I had for all that we were doing and that weekend as a whole.
On Saturday, July 2, Carolyn, Ashleigh, and I headed up to Tom and Diana’s cabin on Indian Lake. Here we spent a wonderful day with Tom, Diana, Mom, Bob, Lori, Shane, Brandon, Abbey, and Elise. Bob’s sister Sherry and her family came up for a while too. I got such a kick out of playing with Lori’s girls. Abbey was (and remains) quite the character. At one point she was doing some gymnastics on the canopy swing while Ashleigh and I were sitting on it. Ashleigh asked her to do her little stunt again. At that point Abbey was next to me and she told her that she wanted to do her trick “next to someone who is not wearing glasses.” I, of course, was the culprit whom she hadn’t warmed up to yet.
I give fishing lessons to Ashleigh, Bob, and Carolyn
Ashleigh and Kara take Abbey out on the pedal boats
Both Abbey and Elise had recently learned the lyrics to “Take Me out to the Ballgame.” Their version went something like this: Take me out to the Ball Game / Take me out to the croooowd / Barney some pheenuts and cracks-or-jacks / I don’t care if I ever go back / So let’s woot, woot, woot for the home team / If they don’t win, it’s the same/ So it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out / at the old…ball…game / And the crowd went wild! I tried to get them to sing this as often as possible.
Elise and Abbey man Tom’s motor boat
Abbey, Elise, and Brandon arrive back at port
Brandon, Abbey, and Elise
Abbey lowers her vodka for a better pose
Ashleigh takes the girls out again
Elise was a real treat too. We sat out in Tom’s docked boat and I pretended to get a shock everytime I put my finger in the boat’s starter. So naturally I had to repeat this many times every time Elise told me “put-a hand in.”
Elise: “put-a hand in”
Of course, we fished, cooked out, pedal boated, and enjoyed fireworks over the lake. I believe that Carolyn and I headed back that night while Ashleigh stayed on with Mom and Bob. Some of Diana and Tom’s other family member came up to the lake on Sunday, but Carolyn and I had to move on to our second Fourth of July gathering.
The fun continues with the Claude family and Ashleigh after I left
Yaht’s Sunday morning catch
Ashleigh takes the girls out once again
Ashleigh (with her obvious newly-christened red hair) feeds the mallards with the children and Abbey
Carolyn’s sister Melanie and her husband Brett co-owned a great trailer home along the Ohio River with their friends Nick and Wendy. They had a massive party with more food than a small country could devour. We brought along our cornhole set to add to the many that were already in use there. They set up a small kiddie pool for the kids and had periodic trips down to the lake to board either a speedboat or a pontoon. All of Carolyn’s family were there along with many of the friends and family of the owners. I had a blast here as well. It wasn’t until later in the afternoon when I started to poop out and Brett set me up in their air-conditioned bedroom where I napped with Brett and Mel’s baby Brennan and watched Vegas Vacation on the DVD player.
As if we hadn’t enough excitement for the weekend, Carolyn’s work Howell Rescue Systems had a big gathering of the friends and family of their employees on Monday, July 4 - the holiday itself. Mom and Bob came along to enjoy the evening as well. Again, there was tons of food and freshly cooked hamburgers off the grill. Best of all, the location of Howell Rescue is right next to Delco park where there is an annual fireworks exhibition on Independence Day. There was an amazing view of the spectacle for our position - where it seemed like the fireworks were exploding just overhead!
All weekend long, I had my cell phone waiting for stores to call me with system issues. Sue was on vacation and I believe that this was the first time I had gone it alone. It wasn’t until about a half-hour before the fireworks that I got my one and only call about a store issue - which I was proudly able to solve.
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