Austin ModHouse

we had a great fourth of july.  how do we celebrate independence?

do we dress the dogs up in red white and blue?  wear a short skirt decorated with stars? (both of which sound like fantastic ideas to me, well... I am not saying that I will wear a short skirt ... maybe kat will?)

participate in a city parade? (notice it's more like a walk with the neighbors as the parade participants outnumbered the spectators by 50 to 1)

marvin may be small but he pulls like a big dog.  he surely feels he is independent, despite the chain.  my daughter was tired of his pulling and not feeling quite so independent.

baby's first parade.  he slept through it.

big hair and stripey pants wreak of independence.

amy's ice cream for breakfast is a true indication of being independent.  never mind that he's wearing a blue bell shirt.  the line for breakfast tacos was a bit shorter.

friends from school.

great MCM home that is on the next street down from us.  the nice people who have recently purhcased and have been applying sympathetic restoration to this home also expressed their independence by walking down the middle of the street with us paraders.

I like the new railing they've added.

we loaded up the excursion like the griswolds.

nothing says independence like exclusivity. 

independently floating in lake travis.

he is free to throw a stick and roxanne was free to retrieve it.

more independent floating.

roxanne is still hoping somebody will throw the stick again.

my daughter and I paddled to an island we had seen on the other side.  we got about 20 yards from the shore and they started threatening us with police actions.  they were keeping us back from the fireworks.  I felt my independence was being dampened and I wanted to keep going forward till we touched the bank.  my daughter was nervous so we did turn back. 

another expression of pure independence, crushing your spent beer cans and piling them up.  that is freedom.  joel is free to eat chips wearing a cowboy hat, he might be wondering how roxanne is going to smell for the drive home.

chip returned from his last quick trip in the sail boat as the sun set.

this picture reminds me of golden boy peanuts, which are not available for sale down in hell.

roxanne was STILL waiting for anybody to please throw her a stick.

independence is controlled explosions.

boom!