celebrating our independence

A quick run-down of our 4th of July.  

It pretty much included us inviting ourselves to a few gatherings.

The only thing we had officially planned for the day was the Idaho Falls parade in the morning.

Some of the crew for the parade.

Have you ever seen a camel in a parade before? This was a first for me.  It even peed in front of us for like 5 minutes...the kids thought it was pretty cool.

They even had the baby but it was a little tired of walking.

After the parade we ended up at a relative, of a relative, of a relatives house.  Needless to say it was someone we didn't know and we showed up anyway for a BBQ.  You can't celebrate the 4th of July without a BBQ it just wouldn't be American.

That afternoon we debated about sticking around for the firework show that night. With a new baby I didn't want to fight the crowds or be out that late so we headed back home.  We ended up once again inviting ourselves over to our neighbors to play in the water and eat dinner. 

Addy wanted to pose for the camera.

And another pose.

Once it started getting a little dark we put jammies on the kids and started with the parachutes.  I really didn't think they would even work because we bought the cheaper ones at the stand.  Turns out they all worked and some of them even had two chutes.  

Once it really got dark we put on quite a great show since we combined fireworks with several families on our street.  It was great to be home and socialize with people in our neighborhood since we are always gone on the 4th.

4th of July Fun

For the Fourth of July we drove down to my parents house for their annual family party.  We (like most everyone!) had a BBQ with lots of family and then lit off some parachute fireworks.  These are always a favorite but for some reason this year we had a lot of duds.  

Addy thought they were a little too noisy,

but she still tried to catch them with all the others.

We only had one battle wound but he got the parachute so it was totally worth it!

Then all the kids take turns, starting with the littlest, to hit the pinata.

(sorry the picture isn't straight)

We always end with Chelsea busting the pinata open since technically we've always said it was part of her birthday celebration.

Enjoying their candy...

or a minion.

While we were waiting for it to get a little darker, we road the wiggle cars while Mitch threw snaps at us.

Jamie even brought glow necklaces and bracelets for all the kids. They were a great hit.

Then my mom persuaded Chelsea to climb into this fake firework box so she could send a picture to her man in Alaska.  I thought they should send him this picture!

The girls were so cute while we were watching the fireworks.  They were always saying "Ohhh I love that one!"  "That's my favorite cause it has pink (or purple) in it" and my favorite was "It's not too loud anymore!" Since Addy was sort of being a baby about the parachutes I was a little worried how the night would go but it turned out great.

She was even brave enough to hold her own sparkler!

And only one fell asleep.

I think we had a pretty good show this year.

Now just to clean it up!

Our 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July this year by driving back from the Anderson family reunion. We were planning on driving straight back to Idaho but decided that might be pushing it a little too far so we decided to stop at my parents house and stay the night and leave early in the morning to finish the trip home. When we decided this, we were driving through Wyoming so we stopped at a firework stand and bought a few fireworks. It would've been a real sad day if we went without fireworks on the 4th of July.

Once it was dark enough, we went outside and the boys had fun lighting the fireworks.

The girls had a fun time watching until one of the fireworks ended up shooting right at our heads. Then it was just a little more scary!

Once we ran out of our own fireworks. We decided to climb up on the roof because there were LOTS of other fireworks going on all around us. Mostly the one's that shoot up high in the sky so we had a great show up on the roof.

And just for comic relief, here is an great picture of me and Addy!
1 bright flash + a little wind + 2 cheesy grins = 1 awesome picture

Fourth of July

Our fourth of July celebrations began on Friday night with a pizza party and game night with the Workman family. That night we stayed down at Mitch's folks so we didn't have to wake up real early the next morning.
Saturday we quickly got ready and went to one of the neighbors for what they call "breakfast on the boulevard". They serve pancakes with strawberries and cool whip, eggs and ham. It is/was delicious. After breakfast we walked down the street to watch the parade in the freezing cold. My favorite part was the helicopters that flew right over us at the beginning. My little three year old nephew was standing on the edge of the street and after they passed us, he stretched his arms out and said with a huge grin on his face, "that was so cool".


Once the parade was over we walked back and watched part of the world cup game and then had a BBQ after it warmed up a little more. Then we lit our parachute fireworks and had our tank wars. Always a fun time. Sadly my camera died so I didn't get any pictures.

The kids all wanted to play croquet- I just wanted to sit in the sun and relax, so I did.


Later that night we headed down to the river with some of our friends and watched the fireworks. They are always amazing and thankfully Addy had taken a late nap so she was quite happy and running around. My favorite was when she saw the group in front of us eating licorice, so she went and stood right by their chairs and was just starring at them. Some guy saw her and offered her a piece which made her so happy. At least we know if times get real hard she shouldn't go hungry because she is pretty good at begging for food!

After the fireworks, we drove back to Rexburg since we had church meetings nice and early the next morning. Later that evening we drove back down and had a little dessert (which is on my recipe blog) and lit our own fireworks. Our favorites were purple rain, a midnight summers dream, happiness something, and Mama mia. I realize most of you don't care what our favorites were but it will be nice for next year. Also the supposedly "cool" sparklers were totally not worth it. Just stick with the cheap ones.




On Monday I didn't have to babysit so we took Addy to see Toy Story 3. Really cute movie and Addy was entertained for awhile but definitely not for the whole thing. Towards the end I just took her down to the little aisle where you walk in and she played and ate little pieces of popcorn off the floor while I watched the movie. I don't think we will be taking her back to the movies for awhile. Hopefully you all had as fun a weekend as we did!