Our 4th

We had a fabulous 4th of July weekend...as long as you forget the fact that Matt ended up commuting back and forth between Tallahassee and the beach all weekend long. Poor guy, but you know it was important work stuff if he was willing to do all that driving.

Eli and I drove down Wednesday night with a few students from my middle school advisement group.

We had fun eating, playing games, staying up to the wee hours of the morning talking, and spending all day in the water Thursday. I kid you not, those kids only came out of the water to eat! They made the trek back to Tally later that day. (Thanks for helping chaperone and chauffeur, Mrs. Betsey!!)

Thursday, we were joined first by my sister and mom. Later that night, another sister, her boyfriend, and Matt arrived. And on the actual 4th, Eli's friend, Mallie and her parents came down for the day. It really was a wonderful weekend...so glad we all can come together at such a beautiful piece of "Heaven on Earth."

I cooked up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies -- patriotic style. And, yes, I did...I dug through a bag of M&Ms and pulled out only the red and blue ones. (Eli helped a bit...) Then I added white chocolate chips to complete the effect. They were delicious and didn't last long.

Gotta have watermelon, right?

We made lots of guac to munch on all weekend long. (As you can tell, our time together often revolves around FOOD!)

Eli tried out boogie boarding this weekend. He did well for the first two waves, but the third one tipped him over. The board landed on top of him, and in a matter of milliseconds, I was there pulling the board off of him to see him under the shallow water with his eyes wide open looking up as if to say, "What did you do to me?" I pulled him up, he coughed and choked....a bit shaken up. I told him to be brave and forced encouraged him ride one more wave to be sure he knew he could do it. He was scared, but did it and ended up with a smile on his face. So proud of himself that he'd done it again after being so scared. I was proud too.

As I've mentioned in other posts about the beach, Eli is all about big holes these days. They are the perfect way to enjoy the sand and surf all at once. I think we dug one each day....

Can you tell what he's driving? He's got quite the imagination these days.

These two played quite well together in the sand most of the day....and then later in the house while waiting for dinner....

...and then waiting for fireworks.

(They almost look related with their curls & fair skin)

As you can see....Eli was a bit scared of the loud fireworks. He spent most of the night watching them like this:

But then he got "brave," claiming he liked the loud ones the best.

Finally it was time for dessert and sparklers. A great combination and a great ending to a fabulous 4th.

This looked more "patriotic" with raspberries and blueberries and crumble before it was cooked, but it still tasted mmm, mmm, good.

And Eli quickly warmed up to sparklers...

...and even double fisted!

Hope you all had a fantastic 4th as well!