What I Want To Remember {4th of July Weekend 2011}

Things I want to remember from this past weekend:

• Samuel's look on his face when Grandpa reeled in a real fish. Mouth and eyes both as wide open as possible. Speechless for about a minute and then, "Is that a pretend fish?" I think he was expecting Grandpa to reel in a little plastic fish like Samuel has on his little fishing pole!
• Samuel and Aliyah both falling asleep during the fireworks on Saturday because they had played so hard that day. Hope staying awake (and enjoying!) the fireworks. We tried to lay Hope down earlier because we thought she would crash but when she was still awake just before 10:30 Daryl got her up and brought her down to watch the fireworks with everyone else.
• Samuel swimming in his new swimming ring from Great-Grandma and singing "swimmin', swimmin', swimmin'!
• Hope jumping into the water to Daryl - and going under a couple times when she would jump in when he wasn't ready or looking.
• Aliyah's "ooooh, oooh, ooooh!" and pointing and shaking (from excitement!) when she would see a doggy, fishy, or bird/duck/swan. She thinks that all birds/ducks/swans say "quack, quack, quack" (complete with head bobbing up and down) and doggies say "oof, oof"!
• Aliyah's first time eating a sucker
  
• Pontoon boat rides with Great-Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Anna. Snacking on gummy worms and being silly with them.
• Samuel swimming out to the raft. I jumped in off of the raft. Samuel peering over the edge and asking "there fishy in there, Mommy?" When I told him no he immediately said, "I want to jump in!" He then "jumped" off of the raft (Mommy standing on the raft and helping him "jump" into Daddy's arms in the water) at least 5 times and his big huge smile that said he was so proud of himself!
• Major fireworks going off just a few cottages down from us on Sunday night. Samuel, Hope, and Aliyah sleeping (not even budging!) throughout the whole display with all of the (very) loud bangs!
• Kristi and Nick buying Samuel, Hope, and Aliyah Pop Rocks candy at the candy store. Samuel loved it! Hope and Aliyah weren't so sure. But it was sure fun to watch them eat it!
• Aliyah taking 6-8 steps at a time
• Daryl hiding a snake in Mom's bed. Mom freaking out and throwing it at Anna. Anna caught (by Daryl and myself) trying to hide the snake in Daryl's bed. Dad tried to cover for her saying she was "watching fireworks" but we knew better when we walked into the room and Anna was falling over and around everything in our room and knocking the monitor, etc down!
• A golf cart ride with the kids on Saturday night. They all loved it. Aliyah loved the bumps on the gravel road.
• Samuel fishing for a long time with Grandpa and Daddy. He got so good at casting the line! He could get it really far. :)
• Samuel as we were walking down to see the lake on Sunday morning (the lake was clear and so calm) - "Is that another net upside down?" (talking about the volleyball net's reflection in the water)
• Hope, when Daryl went to check on her shortly before the fireworks started on Saturday night, "I want to be awake!"
• Aliyah started taking 6-8 steps at a time all by herself!
• Aliyah also learned how to give high-fives and was such a big girl by giving them to Nick, Kristi, Uncle Rick, and other people she barely knew!