4th of July

We love the 4th of July. I might actually like it better than Christmas since it's warm and I don't have to buy any presents. Haha. Anyway, our fourth was kind of low key this year, but we did sneak in some new and old traditions and had a lot of fun. 

We started the weekend before by marching in our town's children's parade with some of my cousins and their kids. Any kids are invited to dress up, decorate wagons etc. and walk 6 blocks in a parade flanked by the high school marching bands. Afterwards you get a popsicle. Let me tell you--thank heavens it was only 6 blocks. It was 90 degrees outside and felt like we were herding cats. We earned that popsicle!

 G's scooter is still decorated--he doesn't want to take it off until after the 24th of July (Pioneer day). I tell you, this kid loves to participate. He does not get this quality from me :-) 

 My cousin's little boys

 Grandpa fiddling with his camera and Grandma pulling the wagon.

We just walked in a big herd of family members and kids bounced around everywhere. It was awesome.  

  My cousin ended up riding his daughter's pink scooter the whole time because she wouldn't. It was pretty funny to watch this big, tall guy riding a little, pink scooter around. He was a good sport about it.  

 We also went on our annual trip to see the hot air balloons. Every year I think--why the heck are we waking up the kids to go and join the crowds and watch these things?!?!? But every year I am so glad that we did. It is so beautiful and just sort of special. 

  Notice E in most of these pictures is doing something odd. Yes, he is in a goobery picture stage. 

Oh and like the night before we went to this, G fell and scraped up his whole face. It was really sad and pretty brutal. So yeah, in all the pictures he looks like he was just in a bar fight.  

  

 On the fourth we did the freedom run, then had dinner with my brother in law's grandparents. 

Afterwards, we did a few cheap fireworks. It was a pretty lame little show, but the kids had fun and we didn't spend much money. Win-win. 

 Miss H learns the fine art of snaps. 

  

 I got a kick out of this. E had a certain vision for his tanks...

 Favorite Uncle B. I don't think the kids will ever forgive them for moving or if they have kids of their own someday. :-) 

This picture just makes me laugh. I think it gives you a pretty good idea of what things are usually like at our family get-togethers. 

Hope you all had a happy fourth too!

Ice blocking and the zoo

When summer started, we decided that we needed to make a list of things we wanted to do as a family. After a few weeks and some prodding by the kiddos, we realized we needed to get going on that list and get at least a few marked off. So on the day we sold our house, hubs got off of work a little early to sign papers and afterwards we decided to go ice blocking as a family to celebrate. 

 The kids were really good sports and loved it. Hubs and I hadn't been since we were in YM/YW. He was weirdly good at it and it was pretty fun. 

 After about 2-3 trips up and down the hill, I was done!

Hubs was a good sport too, since he usually ended up carrying all the ice blocks up the hill for the kids. Here he is with 30 lbs of ice blocks. 

Anyway, it was a super fun activity and pretty inexpensive. Afterward we had dinner and ate snow cones. A great summer day. 

We also went to the zoo with Hub's family to celebrate all of the June birthdays.   

 Our monkey by the monkeys. 

 Snow cone break. It was a sacrifice...but one we were all willing to make. 

 My awesome SIL (Brian's brother/her husband was the only June birthday who couldn't make it but we are glad she came anyway) and favorite Uncle E.

 This is about half of the group while we waited for a few more to catch up.

 There is a new polar bear exhibit and he put on a big show for everyone. He kept flipping and swimming around in the water. It was really fun to watch. 

 Herding cats...

 Grandma giving E some loves. His face is probably covered in food :-) 

 Finally, we were all hot and tired so we took a ride on the train. 

It was a lot of fun and it wore everyone out for a couple of days. Around here, we call that a success!