4th of July- PART 2

We had a fun 4th of July!!  I LOVE Monday holidays….It makes the weekend seem so much longer, because normally, I feel like the weekend ends when we go to bed on Saturday night.  Our Sundays are always SO busy with church, callings, meetings, home teacher visits, etc. that it hardly counts as a “weekend day.”  So, this was wonderful.

Our Monday morning started with a double-ward pancake breakfast at the church, followed by a flag ceremony and quick little program with all the war veterans/active military/etc.  that was so wonderful.  Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the fun events on the 4th, and it was so nice to stop and take a moment to remember our freedom and recognize the men and women who have/are currently fighting for our country.  It was particularly special because one of my friend’s husbands had just left for Afghanistan the previous morning.  I felt so proud to be clapping for a soldier that I actually KNEW.

I love these pictures of Brooke and Olivia in their red, white, and blue!

After the girls’ naps, our guest started arriving for a BBQ!

My sweet nephew, Jacob:

The kitchen table decor (Grant said, “Turquoise is not one of the colors on the American flag!”  Sheesh….I guess I need to add royal blue to my paper lantern collection.):

After dinner, we headed outside to watch the kids play with some water toys.

The Griffeth Family (a little blurry):

The Webster Family:

The Guerisoli Family:

The Mickelsen Family:

Remember how Maddie got a slide for her birthday?  We put it to good use on the first day:

 

It got pretty wild and CRAZY!  I thought someone would end up in the E.R. for sure!

This water wiggler was pretty fun too.  We also had a giant beach ball and a slip n’ slide for the kids to play with.

The adults got to sit and watch the kiddos while chatting and eating yummy desserts.  So fun!

Cute Maddie just sat on her picnic blanket, like a good girl.  She loved watching the big kids!

 

I can’t get enough of that sweet profile!

 

Hahaha!!  All part of the fun, I guess.

My sister, Shannon, with Jakey.

 

All fireworks were BANNED this year because of the drought!  RETARDED, right?!?!  Even the city ones were cancelled.  I looked high and low to find some wimpy sparklers for the kids, but to no avail.  Apparently, if I had bought some, I could have been arrested!!  It was SO sad to not be able to end our night by watching fireworks, but it was still a fun-packed day.  We’re crossing our fingers for no drought next year, so we can actually enjoy some firework watching.