Happy 4th of July

We started out our Independence Day with a long hike through the Turkey Trail.

Emma loves to stop and take pictures.....unless the rest of the family are in them too. This bridge was built by my little brother Will as an Eagle Project. It is nice and sturdy.

My Dad helped a lot with the project too.

Dave and I found this wilderness annomaly and took it as a sign of our love.

We separated from Dyl and my Dad, and when we met back up, Dyl had met with a terrible fate. He had scratched his twiggy little leg, and wasn't able to walk very well, until my Dad poured some special "healing" water over the wound.

It still didn't do the trick though, and Dyl hike the rest of the trail with the help of some crutches. His little calves had to be on fire from hopping for miles, but he wasn't giving up the schtick.

We were all pretty sympathetic for awhile....

But then it just got fricken' annoying.

As we were walking I said to Dave, "Check out that squirrel on the trail ahead of us." He replied, "Holy &%#$, look at that snake in front of the squirrel!" I don't know how I had missed it, because it was enormous. I sprinted way ahead to get Dawson who had lost patience with his crippled brother and brought him and Gramps back to check it out.

All the Hoodlums thought it was cool, and everyone was having fun until Dave "borrowed" Dyl's crutch to nudge the snake a bit. Dyl saw him do it and immediately went into hysterics. He wouldn't touch the crutch after that, and really let Dave have it, everything from "I needed that to walk" and "You don't care about my diabetes." It was very theatrical and entertaining.

Eventually Dave found a suitable replacement, which was actually the original snake stick just thrown up the path aways and then "discovered" as we passed by.

Happy kids! Em, really just being herself, and Dyl extra tired from all the limping.

That night we went into Manassas for the fireworks and celebration. There was a country band playing, and by some Independence Day miracle, Dyl's scrape was healed and he danced the night away with Em. They were hilarious, especially when he was dipping her and trying to throw her around.

Watching fireworks from the cannons.

My little drama queen. Wonder where he gets it?