4th of July Festivities

We had a wonderful day celebrating our nation's independence, enjoying great company, and beautiful weather. I love summer days! The weather is great & it stays light outside so late. If only there was a way to be able to enjoy summer weather all the time yet still be able to experience the four seasons.

Here's a photo recap of our patriotic day:

Getting our daughter's bike ready for a ride to the park for our ward/neighborhood picnic
The little man ready for a walk
The daughter playing games with her new BFF at the picnic
Although this picture is way out of focus (hard to shoot with a little helper. Note to self: must get better at that!), it captures the joy these two little girls were having tossing water balloons. They actually won the contest but tended to get closer & closer to each other instead of moving apart. It was too cute!
Having a blast watching the big kids play & eating pancakes (BTW, wagons work great as outdoor play pens : ) )
Randy looking so thrilled to be there (he really did have a good time...it's hard making new friends though)
After play all morning we came home for naps and Hawaiian chicken kabobs. I forgot to take a picture until there was only one left. Oops!
They were so yummy that I didn't even have any leftovers!
With everything going on, I forgot about a festive desert. No worries, we made s'mores.
They were so yummy too!
When it finally got dark (oh, 10:30!) we did the traditional fireworks. All of our neighbors were out and were were able to enjoy quite the show. I can't believe the amount of aerials that were going off around us! I thought for sure something was going to go wrong. I have a horrible fear of fire and spent most of the night praying that we (& no one else) will be harmed.


And for our finale...a creepy clown! after being first lit this is what it did...
It then progressed through different chambers that where pretty cool but that creepy clown face came back every once in awhile .
Overall we had a great day visiting, celebrating and even made some new friends. No one was hurt, no fires in our area (I am sure fires did happen somewhere in all the craziness but I am just not very informed), and things quieted down pretty fast around us. We are so thankful to be USA citizens and live in such a beautiful country! HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE!!!


[To add to my day, I finished the first twilight book! I will admit that Bella irritated me at times (stupid girl!) but I still really enjoyed it & am already engrossed in the next book.]