4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We had a fun-filled, hot, very hot day. The day began with me, Anna, Abby and Nate driving up to join my Mom's family for a hike. We have this dilemma every year on the 4th: go with Mom's family on a hike and a BBQ afterwards or small town parade with a gigantic water fight at the end? Since Brennan never complains about any of of the many family get-togethers with my family and both of my extended families, I defer to him on this one and he loves this parade -- we all do. This year, they started the hike a little earlier and the parade wasn't until 11:00 so I tried to do both. The four of us hiked up for about an hour, then said goodbye to our group (except my Mom who kindly went back down with us) and began the hike back down. The girls did really well. Nate got really tired and a little stubborn. He wanted to stop and rest every 1.3 seconds which was fun. He actually did pretty well overall. Part of the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I feel like our kids needs a little toughening up, so we made it and hopefully it was good for all of us.

After we finally got back down the mountain, we dropped Mom off at my aunt's house and then raced to the parade. Brennan and Ben were waiting for us with some of my aunts and uncles and their kids and my Grandma. Fortunately we were situated towards the end of the parade so even though we were a little late we only missed two cars. We settled in in the hot hot sun and cheered the brave paraders on.

Ben loved all of the excitement, the sirens, and candy being hurled in all directions, and the clapping. At the end of the parade, truck after truck with tank and after tank of water drives through and hoses the crowd down. Ben and Grandma and I left before the hosing off began, but the rest of my family (except Nate who kept a safe distance long before the water part started) came home drenched.

Later that evening we went over to my parents' for BBQ with Josh, Lize, Abe (brother-in-law, sister and nephew)and Grandma. Kevin and Lisa (aunt and uncle) and their kids joined us later. We had lots of yummy food and then went out front to have our own little firework show. It was still very light, which was my fault because I was more worried about bedtimes than I was optimal firework darkness. Sue me. Brennan bought a bunch of the flower variety, the ones that spin around and pop at the end. Mr. Paranoid himself insisted our kids stand in the street and be chased by the flowers.

Then we brought out the sparklers. This was something. They're kind of tricky to get lit, so Brennan would get a handful lit and then start yelling "Alright, hurry come grab some guys, hurry, come get them." Then after he finally managed to get the lit sparklers transferred from his hand to theirs (not as simple as it sounds) he started yelling, "Don't let them go out, don't let them go out!" while he scrambled to grab a new handful to light. "I said not to let them go out!" he'd yell evidently oblivious to the fact that no one has that kind of control. It was one of the most chaotic and hilarious scenes I've ever witnessed. The kids (including some random neighbor kids that none of us knew) were trying desperately to get their hands on a sparkler and have a little fun while this big guy was barking out impossible, crazy and repetitive orders while every other adult was dying laughing. Good times. We love Brennan.

After that we packed up and headed home. I put Benny to bed and the rest of us all went out to our front yard for a fabulous view of a nearby amusement park's firework show.

You'd think that was the end, wouldn't you? (You hoped it was at least, right?) Nope. Brennan has gone camping twice the last few weeks with Nate and no girls so he promised them he'd sleep in the tent with just them that night. The three of them headed out back and after only about 12 trips back inside for some forgotten treasure or potty trip, settled in. Nate wasn't happy, but finally gave up his protests and went to sleep in my bed only to fall out in the middle of the night. The wind blew so hard the girls got scared so the three of them ended up camping in our family room. Adventures non-stop around here.

We love our family and we love America -- happy Independance Day!