Celebrating a Final 4th of July at Lake Samm

After 64 years of being in the family, our beloved property on Lake Sammamish was put on the market a few weeks ago.  Since my family is asking a lot of money for this waterfront property with a tear-down cabin on it, it luckily has not sold right away.  As a result, I am hoping that we can enjoy it one more summer before it sells and insisted that we spend the 4th of July here since it most likely will be our last.  Although we haven't always celebrated this holiday at Lake Samm since we moved here 19 years ago, I spent every childhood 4th of July here and have so many fond memories of spending the afternoon and evening celebrating with cousins and blowing off fireworks.  So I was grateful that my family agreed to join us for the event.  Unfortunately, Eric and his family just moved to Spokane earlier this week, so they were unable to attend, but Chris and his family and my mom joined us.  My cousin, Nate, also invited some people to come and my cousin, Alyson, and her daughter, Lydia, stopped by to say hi.  Overall, we spent a wonderful afternoon and evening enjoying the water, eating dinner on the beach, blowing off fireworks, and watching the spectacular show that is put on each summer directly across the lake from our property.  It was a wonderful way to spend our country's 250th birthday and I will forever be grateful that we were able to make one more memory celebrating the 4th of July at this special place of mine.

Logan and Emmett playing on the paddleboard with Uncle Chris and Trenton.

For the first time ever, Ella got up the nerve to jump off the roof of our dock with the help of Ron.  Here she is smiling at me before jumping.

From fourteen cousins to five.  

Here are Lia, Logan, Trenton, and Emmett posing together at sunset.

The group picture of all of the Muellers in attendance.

Ella lighting a firework.

Logan helping Uncle Chris set off a firework.

The awesome picture my brother took of Logan and Trenton enjoying the incredible fireworks show across the lake while watching it from the roof of the dock.  If I could sum up summer in one picture, it would be this one.  I'm so glad that my children have been able to enjoy celebrating the 4th of July at Lake Samm several times in their lives.