Happy 4th!

We've had a fun holiday weekend. Last night we went to see the city fireworks. We found a spot to throw our blanket on the grass and enjoyed a great (and fast) show. The only bad thing about living up here for the 4th of July is how late it gets dark. We do daylight savings time here (we didn't do it in AZ) and we're so far north that our summer days have an hour and a half more day than our friends in AZ and nearly an hour more than our friends in Utah. So we don't get to start our fireworks until after 10 pm. And it's chilly when we're out so late, so we have to remember jackets. Not something we're used to doing in July! In fact, we forgot a jacket for Cooper, so he got to borrow Regan's sweater.



So we finally got home from the fireworks last night after eleven. Four of our kids fell asleep in the car on the way home (our four youngest), so we got them all to bed without a fuss and the rest of us followed suit. Here's the miracle. They all slept in until just before 11 today. ALL of them! Even the baby! None of my kids has EVER slept in that long! So to have all six of them do it on the same night was nothing short of a miracle.

So today went fast. We had breakfast around noon and lunch at three. We didn't really do much today. A little housework, I baked bread and Hayden and I went for a bike ride. We went to the Falter's house around six for a barbecue and fireworks. The best part about it was that they invited a ton of people--there were probably sixty to seventy there at one point--so there were friends for everybody. Hayden hung out with all the teenagers playing volleyball and other games. There were two other boys his age that he hung out with, plus Brooklyn and her cousin. Porter played with Austin and another boy their age. They worked on the tree house most of the time. Port also got a pop-em in his eye so we had a little drama over that.


Landon and Adam and Zach played the whole time.


Regan played with them too, except when she was playing "family" with Lloyd, her friend from preschool. She was so excited to see him there. Turner played with Emmalee and Jamison. I found him stripping down in the front yard so he wouldn't get his pants wet when he jumped in the puddles. Good thing I was out there!


We had overkill on the fireworks. Because there were so many people, and everyone brought fireworks, it went on forever. Even the 12-13 year old boys got bored! (But not the eleven year olds--they can never get their fill of FIRE!! FIRE!!!) After the "grand finale" Daren played the national anthem on his electric guitar with the amp WAY up. I'm sure it could be heard for miles. It was really cool. The kids thought it was pretty awesome!


There was a lot of clean up to be done, but it went fast. We finally got out of there about eleven. But this time only Turner fell asleep on the way home. Cooper had a hard time falling asleep. He was probably just overstimulated. So was I, which is why I'm on the computer at 12:30 am. Plus the fact that I slept in until nearly 11 this morning!