Stars & Stripes!

Our Fourth of July celebration started Saturday, June 29th.  Lila was asked by Hilltop Ranch, where she is taking riding lessons, to ride Bud in the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival Parade!  Can you imagine her excitement?!  The weather outlook wasn't great for Saturday morning, but the parade was going to go rain or shine! 

We got downtown around 9:00, the folks from Hilltop were busy getting the carriage and other horses ready for the parade.  We sat patiently and watched as they got the horses out of the trailers, saddled all of them up, decorated the carriage with red, white & blue, all while wishing the pesky rain away!

 

Rain, Rain Go Away!

 

 

Bud waiting patiently

 

 

At 9:30 it was time to stage everyone for the parade, so up she went on Bud and her and Mike took off to go wait in line, their number in the parade order was 65, so I wandered off to find a spot to watch as they came through the downtown streets!

 



Lila all saddled up and ready to go!

 

 The rain eventually let up and the parade was in full swing.  We waited patiently for Lila and the Hilltop Ranch horses to make their way to where we were.  As they got closer you could see the excitement pouring out of her while she rode confidently!  While she was a bit shy at first, according to Mike, it didn't take long for her to warm right up to waving at all the spectators! 

 

 

Here comes Hilltop Ranch!



Spotting us in the crowd!

 

Parade Pro!

 

 

Mike said that he heard so many people make comments about how little she was riding that big horse and a lot of people say to their kids, "look, you could do that, too!"  It was really awesome to see her enjoying herself so much.  We are so grateful that Hilltop Ranch thought of her and asked her to be a part of the parade!

On Wednesday, July 3rd we packed up the family roadster, including the dogs, and headed towards Guttenberg for the remainder of the week.  We were pretty excited to get some time away, but I must admit, while packing the car with everything we needed, plus the three of us and the two dogs...I wasn't quite so sure we were going to make it!!!  It seemed like A LOT!  We weren't planning on taking the dogs with us, but due to lack of space at the kennel, they were loaded up and coming with us!  Once we finally got on the road it was smooth sailing!

With the dogs riding in the back everything else had to go in the backseat!



Welcome to G'berg!

 

We finally pulled into town around 4:00 on Wednesday!  Every time we start to get close to Guttenberg and you see the river as you top the hill, I get a twinge of excitement!  This place has been a part of my family for 3 generations and I don't know life without spending my summers there, so it is such a great feeling to know that as a family we are carrying on this tradition for Lila!

 

Thursday was the 4th of July!  We woke up to a beautiful morning and enjoyed sitting under the covered porch, even Tag thought it was a nice way to wake up!

 



Good morning!

 

I was a bit disappointed to learn that the fireworks were shot off the previous weekend, it is always fun to watch the fireworks while sitting on the river, but it would be no such luck this year.  It was okay, we had a full day of boating, trampoline jumping, and spending time with extended family ahead of us!

 

 

A morning jump!

 

 

Little firecracker!

 



Two ol' boys relaxing!

 

 The river is really high and has a pretty strong current due to all of the rain we have had this Spring & Summer, the boat traffic was rather light considering it was the holiday weekend.  We took advantage of the quieter back waters and got some tubing done!

 



Mississippi River Rats!



Tubing with the girls!



Hold on!



Tubing with Daddy!



Borrowing Mommy's sunglasses!

After we came off the water we headed to my Grandma's cabin to have dinner with our extended family who were all up to celebrate the Fourth, too! 




Happy 4th of July!



Swinging!



Goofing around with Grandma!

Once we were done eating and hanging out we headed back to the cabin where we enjoyed a homemade fireworks display.  The airstrip is right at the end of the driveway, many cabins around the airstrip had the same idea, so we were pretty spoiled with all of the firework activity going on!

With all the fun and sun, we had a very tired little girl and two very tired puppies!  Lila was sleeping on a little cot by our bed and Tag was happy to snuggle up right next to her to get some shut-eye!

Tuckered out!

 

 The weekend following the Fourth is generally dubbed, "Riverfest!"  Historically Friday is designated for family, we have family come in from all over the US and even had cousins come home from China to visit and make Riverfest part of their trip!  We spent another day on the water and then made our way back in to welcome family at the cabin that evening.  We had great food, live music, and great company!

 

 



Fun in the sun!



Loving the weather!



Tubing w/ Uncle Jason

Tubing pro's at this point!

Ruby's planting a few plants before the party!



Family night!



Audra & Lila



This bed isn't big enough for the two of us!

On Saturday we woke up and headed into town to Esser's, a clothing shop where you can screen print a custom t-shirt.  The girls were super excited to get their own Mississippi River/Guttenberg t-shirt!  After we made our shirts it was back to the cabin to get ready to welcome family and friends back to the cabin for Riverfest!  Once again, we had beautiful weather, great live music, good company, and Sam's Steamed Caboose Burgers catered the event, it was delicious!



Yum!



Dylan & Lila



Henley & Lila

We packed up the car and headed home on Saturday evening to allow us to have the day on Sunday to recoup from being gone.  We had a tired household on Sunday with a little girl who was exhausted and two dogs that barely got up all day!  We enjoyed spending time with our family and friends and carrying on the tradition of summers on the River!




 



Growing up on the River!