PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!

We had a great 4th of July.

We got up early and headed off out our ward pancake breakfast. The food was a bit scanty and we were the only ones who brought bacon and blueberries, but at least there were enough pancakes for everyone to have as many as they wanted. When we got home from the breakfast we played a game of baseball in our front yard. A few of the neighbor kids came over and it was grown ups against kids (very unevenly matched I must say, since there were only 2 of us). We then had some left over pizza for lunch and let the kids take naps so they would not be too tired for the evening.

(sorry, I failed to get pictures of us all dressing in our patriotic attire.)

We met up at the pool with a few families from our neighborhood in the late afternoon. About 30 minutes after I got there with Trent and Kolby, it started to get really dark outside and the sky was looking very scary. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later a storm is passing thru and it is pouring down rain. Luckily we had signed up for the pavilion and we chowed down our our dinner while it rained. The storm lasted about 20 minutes and after it pasted, the kids were eager to get back in the pool. We all had a great time swimming till 8:30 p.m.

(Tanner had so much fun in the baby pool as long as he had his floaty. Brooklyne just

wanted to be independent to play in the water how ever she wanted. Kolby loved

getting the other kids to laugh and have fun. He has really become

much more of a fish over the last few weeks.)

(Trent is a mad man in the water. He loved diving off the diving board as well as doing flips. If he wasn't doing tricks off the board he was playing baseball in the water,

having squirt gun wars, or playing marco - polo.)

(the kids loved these inflatable whales. I would whip them around the pool while taking part in the squirt gun wars. Of course I never used the floatation or CHILD to shield me from any water coming my way.)

We all decided to skip doing the city fireworks show and had our own display on our neighborhood street. The kids were having so much fun it was really hard to pull them away from doing more and more and more fireworks. Luckily, we ran out of fireworks and we all headed home. I think we got the kids to bed at about 10:30 p.m. but they had a blast, so it was worth it. The even better thing was that they slept in the next morning till 8:15 a.m. and that NEVER happens.

(the sparklers were a huge hit with the kids. Tanner is the only brave sole who actually tried to touch the burning end.)

(Tanner was "hot and cold" on his involvement with the fireworks. One minute he would be freaking out and crying, and then the next minute, he was having a great time. He loved collecting smoke booms and putting them in the bag all for himself.) (Brooklyne was not too thrilled about the fireworks. He kept getting scared every time there was a loud boom. My arms got so tired from holding her that Donald had to take over. Do you think that would stop him from playing with the fireworks? NOPE!)