Saturday, the Fourth of July

The day began with Grandpa holding court in the sunroom, telling Army and privy stories that can also be found on his blog thetopologist.blogspot.com.

Mike and Jason admired all the little wooden birds I have hanging about the cottage and decided to try their hands at creating one. After much sketching and Dremel-ing, they each produced a wonderful creation - Mike's a cardinal and Jason's an oriole. They are now hanging in the window between the kitchen and the sunroom.

Everyone except me went for a pontoon ride (I opted for the quiet and the chance to reorganize the cottage a bit). See other pontoon pictures in the slideshow below.

For dinner we had baked potatoes in foil, done to perfection on the Weber by Kenneth. Plenty to satisfy the big eaters and vegetarians alike. As darkness approached, Mike set up a fire in the fire pit, which we enjoyed along with the fireworks displays of several of our neighbors. How cool is it that Grandpa was there with us!!! Very!

We also launched four "sky lanterns," one in memory of Mom, Chuck, and neighbor Lynette's mother June. A fifth sky lantern met an untimely fate when it failed to launch properly and ended up in the lake.

In this video you can just barely see the memorial sky lantern twinkling just to the left of the bursts of fireworks.