{juLy 4tH JuBiLee iN biG beAr}

        We spent the week of the 4th of July up in Big Bear for our traditional Jubilee with my family!  This year was a little different than last year!  Usually Jeremiah takes most of the week off work and we spend it up at the cabin.  But since he just started a new job last month, he couldn't take the time off work.....so the kids and I went up on Monday morning and he came up Thursday night after work!  It was a bummer not having him there, but at least he got to spend a long weekend there with us!

This was our life for a week!  I seriously LOVE IT at the cabin!!  It is like a different world up there.....so relaxing, so pretty, so much to do, so much time to do it all!!  :)

Even Maddix likes to just sit and take it all in...... :)

Gorgeous.....

Since Ayden got his very 1st fishing pole for his birthday, he was super excited to fish in Big Bear with the big boys!  We brought Cooper up to the cabin with us on Monday to spend the week there before his parents and brothers came at the end of the week!  The only thing worse than having one boy obsessed with fishing every waking minute of the week......was having TWO boys obsessed with fishing every waking minute of the week!!!!  Ay ay ay!!!!  My mom was nice enough to go sit at the dock with those boys for a couple hours every day!

On the 1st day, Ayden was the lucky one to catch his VERY FIRST FISH!!!!!!  I totally remember, to this day, catching my very first fish....a sun fish at the lake in Wisconsin that my family spent our summers at when I was growing up.  I think I must have been about 5 years old!  So I know that this will be a fun memory for Ayden....catching his 1st catfish at Big Bear Lake!!!  :)  He was SOOOO EXCITED!!!!  

I'm no fisherman, but I think when you catch a fish, it must fuel the fire under you to KEEP ON FISHIN'!!!!!

Something about boys and fish.....they were all obsessed with checking it out!!

Even Maddix wasn't afraid to get his hands a little fishy and squeeze the guts out of the poor thing!!!!  Eeeek!!!!  :-/

Unfortunately, that was the only fish that was caught that week......the rest of their fishing time was spent waiting and waiting and waiting some more.....lots of patience required, but surprisingly, these boys were patient!!!  Never complaining.....just kept asking, "when can we go fishing again, will you take us fishing...."!!

This was a shirt that Ayden got from Grammy & Grandpa with his fishing pole, for his birthday!  He was wearing this on the first day when he caught the fish, so this became his "lucky fishing shirt" and he had to wear it every day after!!!  "Life is full of important choices"......

Grammy took Maddix and Zoey down to the shore one day while the boys fished....

We would sometimes watch, but for the most part, fishing requires too much patience for a girly girl, a crazy toddler.....and a Mom!!!!  :)

Cooper....calling it a day.....

One day, I brought Maddix's bike to the dock so he could ride around the little park while the boys fished!  Since the main road was right next to the park, I was nervous to just "let him go", so I had to run (in my swimsuit, a skirt and flip flops) to keep up!!!!  

After catching the fish on day 1, the boys brought it home.  I begged for them to leave it in the water.....but noone listened to me!!!  :-/  They wanted to cut it up and cook it, but instead Grandpa told them to go to the street, cut it up and use it as a "science experiment"!!!  Not sure that was the best idea for a 8 and 14 year old, but they were pretty excited!  I am not sure what happened after taking this picture because I wanted nothing to do with it and didn't want to hear about it!!!  But I did hear that after they cut open the stomach, they found a bunch of eggs!!!!!  EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!  That was enough to make me lose my appetite for dinner!!  GROSS!!!!  A pregnant fish!!!!  :-/

We did some work around the cabin.....

....some arts and crafts.....

.....some relaxing reading on the front porch.....

....and definitely lots of play!!!!!  One day, we went to the swim beach!!  We were amazed at how low the water level was...it was sad because there wasn't a ton of water for the kids to swim in.....like years past!  They have a couple fun little water slides and blow up toys out in the lake and the kids had to pass a swim test to be able to go out there!  Ayden passed it for the 1st time this year and Zoey had been talking about trying too!!!  I thought she would never get up the courage to do it....and she almost didn't!!!  But she finally got brave and gave it a shot....and she passed too!!!!!  :)  They were both so happy and so excited to go out there!!!

Maddix was happy and excited to eat snacks and play on the shore with Cooper.....

Lunch on the beach....

We didn't go out on the boat as much as I would've loved to, but I enjoyed the days that we did!!!  Like the boys are obsessed with fishing, I am obsessed with boating!!!  :)

Heading out to Grandpa's boat.....

I love pics like this that show just how much these two love each other.....most of the time.....unless he is trying to beat the crap out of her!!!  :-/

My 3 cuties....ready for a day on the lake....

Faster Grandpa!!!!

So much fun!!!!  When we finally stopped and anchored in a cove, Zoey jumped in 1st.....almost before Grandpa could even turn the boat off!!  HA!!  I love it that my kids are water lovers and that they don't hesitate to jump into the lake!!

This cutie was excited to jump in too!!!

My dad taught me how to DRIVE the boat this year!!  It was really quite terrifying!!!  I'm pretty sure I don't want to know how to drive the boat!  I would much rather rely on my chauffer hubby to taxi me around the lake when I want to go....but I guess I SHOULD know how in case of an emergency!!!  Better yet, Jer should just start teaching Ayden how to drive so he can take over if need be!!  ;-)

The ducks were hungry....we brought lots of bread and they were swarming Cooper!!

I am not a big lake swimmer.....which is why I say I love it that my kids are lovers of the lake!  I kinda freak out about things touching me under water....so the thought of fish swimming near me kinda gives me an anxiety attack!!  But I did get in this time and swam with my ZoZo....my mom had to document the moment to show Jer cuz she knew he wouldn't believe it!!  

Swimming with Maddix.....

Love North Pole trips.....

We got a new pet at the cabin!!  A DUCK!!!!!  Just kidding, but a duck did come and visit one afternoon and Zoey got to hand feed it bread!!

She couldn't believe it!!!!  HAHA!!

On Wednesday night, Grammy took us to the Civic Center to see the Wizard of Oz play!!  It was so much fun and literally one of the highlights of our trip.....for all of us!!!  We had front row seats and it was an adorable play!!!  Couldn't have been better!!!

After the play, the kids got to see all the characters, they got to pet Toto, and "Dorothy" told Zoey what beautiful hair she had!  HA!  What a fun fun night!!  Thanks Grammy!!  :)

By Thursday night, the whole family had made it safely up to the cabin.......it was great to have everyone there!!

Friday was the 4th of July and the boys were up bright and early ready to fish!!!

The girls (and Maddix) stayed at the cabin.  Zoey, Auntie Cara & I put up some decorations for the 4th and for our big day of partying!!  :)

Unfortunately, after the sunshine in the morning, it was a cloudy day!  So we didn't get to go out in the boat during the day!  So we found stuff to do around the cabin......

The boys love to bring out all the weapons at the cabin.....the BB guns are always a must do and this year Ayden got a new bow & arrow from his birth mom for his birthday!!!!  So he was really excited to try that out at the cabin!  They set up the targets and off they all shot.....

We had to take our annual 4th of July cousin pic in the matching shirts!!  It's so fun to see these cuties growing up!!  They are all getting so big and I love that at least once a year we get a pretty good picture of all 6 of them together!!  :)  It may take 100 or so pics to get that one good one (and these days it's sometimes even hard to get that one good one)....but we will take what we can get!!

2014!!!!!

This pic was actually on July 5th.....I bribed them all to get in their 4th of July shirts again so I could take another pic cuz I wasn't sure I got any I loved the day before!!  HA!!!  Not sure which one I like better?!?!?

And here are our years past since Zoey was a baby....just cuz it's fun to look at old pics...

2008....

2009....

2010....

2011....

2012....

2013.....

We usually end up with better goofy pics than we do good pics!!  HA!!  I cannot wait to make sure that this picture of Carter gets shown in his wedding video some day!!!  ;-)

Cheese!!!!

Our 3 little firecrackers.....

Crew & Zoey....1 month apart!!

Time for the annual scavenger hunt!!  Grammy got teamed up with Ayden and she was pretty excited about it!!  HA!  :)

Grandpa is always the judge.....Jer and Cooper finished first....here they are searching for something they forgot to get....trying to convince the judge that they really did have it and who knows where it could've gone!?!?  HAHA!!  LIARS!!!!

More judging....

Joe threw a monkey wrench in the scavenger hunt this year when he pulled a dead, stiff mouse out of his bag!!!!  EWWWW!!!!  I about DIED!!!!!  This was the same dead mouse that Maddix found earlier (YES....he TOUCHED it!!!!!!) and put in their bunnies cage to try to "feed him"!!  Not sure where Joe found it again, but it was GROSS!!!!

Face painting by Auntie Cara....

A "Frozen" snowflake....

Maddix's turn.....

....a spider!!!!

Pinata time....How to Train Your Dragon style!!!

But first......it was time for these boys to get into some shenanigan trouble!!!  Cooper had been squirting Jeremiah all day with water guns, so it was time for payback!!!  Joe & Jer dragged Cooper to the hose....

And soaked him!!!!!  HAHAHA!!!  That's whatcha get!!!  Cooper was NOT a happy camper after that!!!

Back to the pinata.....youngest to oldest.....

Maddix....

Zoey....

Crew....with the funniest blind fold on the planet....

And that darn cheapy pinata broke open after Crew hit it.....before everyone had even had a chance!!!!  :-/

But there was still some more candy inside....so Ayden....

Carter....

Cooper.....and it was then getting dangerous with these big boys swinging the bat....so, THE END!!!!

Silliness....

A rare pic of us two together....

Not even sure what they were all looking at on someone's phone?!?!

Popping popcorn in jammies with Grandpa to take out on the boat for the 4th of July fireworks!!!

The plan was to leave Maddix at home with Grammy & Grandpa while we took the big kids out on the boat to watch fireworks!  But when we were putting Maddix to bed before we left, Jer felt bad for him....so he got to tag along!!!  :)  Glad he went!  He loved the fireworks!!!  :)

Seriously, nothing better than fireworks on the lake!!!!  :)

Taking Puppi out for her morning potty break....

Playing games in the morning while eating breakfast.....Ayden was usually the first one up bright and early!!!

Playing in "Critter Cave" above the garage....

Saturday was crappy weather....it rained, there were flash flood warnings all over, road closures because of rock and mud slides, and we even had an EARTHQUAKE!!!!  I was standing outside on the deck and DEFINITELY felt it!!!  The epicenter......BIG BEAR LAKE!!!!!  AHHH!!!  :-/

Gotta admit....it was kinda nice to HAVE TO sit in the cabin and do nothing!!  :-)

My view for my morning run.....I could definitely handle running like this every day....if it wasn't for the DANG elevation that kicks my booty!!!  :-/

One last trip to the North Pole.....we found Maddix's favorite (along with Ayden and Grammy) of Root Beer Floats!!!

One last fishing outing.....

And one last rescue of something up high in the tree....

It was an awesome week!!!!   This is how I felt afterwards......like I needed a vacation from my vacation!!!!  :)  Already looking forward to next year!!!