From a Nicholas POV

Since it's my prerogative (as Amy always says, "This is YOUR blog, Mom; you can do anything you want!"), I'm gonna have two different posts of the Michigan holiday vacation from over the Fourth of July. This one will be from Nicholas' point of view (good g'ma that I am!).

The day we arrived was THE holiday, July 4th, but because it was a Wednesday, the rest of the family didn't arrive till Friday...except for Don and Ruth who were already there, waiting for us. And since we had no other time to celebrate Nicholas' 7th birthday in Atlanta, we celebrated it at the cottage before the tribe arrived. Amy did a good job of mixing up the holiday and birthday.

The birthday boy then played one of his new Nintendo DS games, showing Uncle Don how to do it, while Aunt Ruth snapped away. HA! We snapped at each other!

The thing about the N DS is that it was a fun playmate while none of the cousins were yet there. But there were rules, of course. You can't spend ALL your time gaming, you know!

So Uncle Don oversaw the Lego construction. Uncle Don, the favorite uncle. Uncle Don, the elementary school teacher. The Uncle Don everyone needs to have.

Uh-oh. There it is again. Oops. Amy clearly is okay with it, as are Donica and Dennis.

Well, let's just say it was a big hit! Once Peter and his girlfriend arrived, Nicholas followed them around. Peter is Uncle Don's son. Like father, like son! And Nicholas knows that!!!

So as you see, there really WERE other things to do! But it's still with Peter...

...or with Uncle Don! Once cousin Audrey arrived, there was finally a playmate.

See what I mean about everyone needing an Uncle Don!

Then Aunt Peggy had her 65th birthday! She, too, is/was a school teacher, so guess what she told all the kids! "Since it's MY birthday cake and I can make the rules, you can all come and lick the frosting anywhere you want." And he did! And it was before dinner, because sometimes you just have to eat dessert first! Life really is short!

The last night was when we celebrated the fireworks. The kids, of course, spent the first hour lighting the sparklers, before it was dark enough for the bigger bangs. It was the best fireworks we had had to date (we always pick them up as we pass through Tennessee). Ironically, the next day we adults decided we didn't want to continue the fireworks tradition any more, fearful of any accidents that, thankfully, have been averted all these years thus far. We just don't want to keep pressing our luck.

As I said, this is a Nicholas slant to the holiday trip. My next post will be a bit of everything else. Just because I can?! :)