Memorial Day is the "unofficial" start of summer. But in our family, summer officially starts with our first trip to Alexander's Lake, usually around July 4. This year, with Independence Day falling on a Wednesday, we turned our trip in a weeklong affair. And with Aimee, Henry and Alex also spending the week in Connecticut, it was going to be a very full house.
On Tuesday, July 3, we celebrated Alex's 11th birthday with donuts and presents at breakfast. Morgan and Gwen can pack away donuts pretty well for kids their age. But they're nothing compared to the Coleman boys.
While Alex and Morgan spent most of their time in the water, Gwen spent her time trying to figure out where the cats go when they scoot through the hole in the basement door (above).
Morgan has gotten so good at swimming in her "floatie" that she get herself all over the place. She still hasn't figured out to get herself up onto the end of the dock, though.
On the Fourth of July, we visited with the Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Like last year, Morgan loved drawing alongside Sarah and Alex. But perhaps the biggest hit of the afternoon were the red, white and blue popsicles.
Alison shot the photo above herself. Gwen wasn't prepared for the shot. (Or Allie, for that matter.) Later, the girls proudly hammed-it-up for the camera in patriotic attire while we waited for the fireworks to begin.
This year, we let Gwen stay up late to watch the fireworks over the lake. This was the first time she had seen fireworks in person. She LOVED it, and screamed "Lookee 'dat!" ("look at that") every time another firework lit up the sky.
Before the night was over, Morgan needed to capture her memories in a drawing (below). I understand the firework sticker and light sticks. But I'm not sure there are actually dolphins in Alexander's Lake.
On Thursday, Ariella and Andy took Morgan to see her first movie in a theater -- Disney's Brave. In the past, Morgan has gotten very emotional during the intense moments in movies (yes, even Princess movies). But that day, Morgan confidently gobbled up her bag of popcorn and soaked in every second of the movie on the big screen. At the end of the movie (spoiler alert: there was a happy ending), she turned to Ariella and said, "I didn't even cry!"
Back at the house, Morgan practiced jumping off the dock. After nearly a week of being timid around the water, Gwen finally decided she was brave enough to trying jumping, too.
We spent the rest of the week lounging and swimming. Morgan (who is starting to read short words) loved spelling all the kids names with the giant letters Andy's Mom cut out. Then she wrote her name and squished her handprint into a cement decoration. (She always writes her "g" backwards -- that's kind of her thing.)
Before we left on Saturday, we snapped our annual "Dock Shot" of the four cousins. Every year, we're amazed at how much the kids have changed. This year, Gwen and Henry got the award for "Changed Most Since 12 Months Ago". Compare for yourself -- here are the shots from 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.
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