The 4th

I am so behind at blogging. I'm going to try really hard to catch up this week. My posts will be mostly lots of pictures because I'm seriously lacking in the creative writing department. Life is busy. The last few weeks have been crazy. We've celebrated birthdays and marriages, we've played and road tripped and yesterday I spoke in church. My brain is drained, and today my body is too.

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We had a houseful over the Independence Day. It was lovely and laid-back. Traci and her boys came and Carla too.
We had big plans to head to Cody on the 4th for the big parade, but Carla wasn't feeling quite up to it. And honestly, the reality of getting everyone out the door early enough to secure a decent spot for the parade didn't sound the least bit appealing so we stayed home. We spent most of the day playing and watching movies. In the afternoon, we attempted to make up for bailing on the parade by breaking out the paints and letting the kids get crafty.

I love watching Kade and Tanner with our kids. They are incredibly patient, and our kids absolutely adore them.

Kade pushed Ava all around on Owen's little bike. She was in heaven.

In case you can't tell, that's a Max tail and paw. Ava makes certain that he earns his keep around here.

Owen and Ava headed off on an adventure. They usually don't make it far. The weeds are out of control and prickly!

Movie Time...See Ava holding Tanner's finger? Melts my heart.

We partied it up for Troy's birthday.

This was some sort of wall kicking game Ava started and the girls joined in.....high excitement.

Making headbands and ribbon fireworks.

Painting t-shirts.

Kade was trying hard to elude my camera, but I am stealthy and snapped one of him when he wasn't hiding. Sorry Kade....I needed documentation so I would remember the awesome shirts you decorated for the little boys.

Owen, modeling the headband he made. He wanted to hold the flag all day so a photo-op with his hand-crafted headband seemed like the perfect excuse to let him happily wave that thing.

Ava wasn't nearly as eager to model her headband.

It wouldn't be July 4th without at least one fire call. This time we could see all the action out our back windows.

We live in the perfect spot to enjoy everyone's fireworks on the 4th. There are fireworks lighting up the sky in every direction. The kids usually sit atop the dirt hill that is our backyard to watch them. I prefer to enjoy them sitting in my temperature controlled, bug-free dining room. The french doors provide me with an ample view.  This year there were a bunch of big ones that looked like they were being lit up in the vicinity of Circle Drive. We loved them. I especially loved them because they weren't my dollars being blown into the sky, and it wasn't my children lighting them off. I am a Nervous Nelly.