4th of July

What a day we had on the 4th of July!  We started the morning off early going to the local parade.  This is not an easy task for us.  No matter how I try the kids just stay up later and later every night in the summer and my kids do not do well on small amounts of sleep. Every morning I have to pry them out of bed to do chores.  The 8am parade is pretty much a killer for us. 

Luckily our family saved us some great seats since we were late.  Here are all the cousins.

Luke and Austin

Sophie Rose

Jennifer, Isabelle, and Grandma

Heidi

Annie rockin' her new boots

Cousins on the way out of the parade

Our family...

David with the twins.  They fell asleep after all the excitement.

After the parade we came home and got to talk to Great-grandma Bogren in Canada for a bit.  Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for our family BBQ/Splash Party.  Annie didn't want to let the boots go.  I love them!

Grandma set up a huge plastic slip-n-slide for the grandkids.  You can tell from the pictures they had a lot of fun!

Annie

Michael

Sadie crash and burns.  

 Uncle David gives it a whirl.

Emmaline and Lauren 

Chloe with the little girls.

Alexis, Emmaline (with the great expression), Lauren, and Sadie

Go Aunt Melissa!

Everyone was exhausted after the early parade and all that slip-n-sliding.  Now they were just waiting patiently in the shade for the homemade ice-cream to be finished. 

No nap for Sophie...

Joshua

Hanging out on the trampoline.

Luke

That evening we joined our friends at the River for some fun and games while waiting for the BEST FIREWORKS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.  

Ryan brought Uno and it kept this crew entertained the whole time. 

Heidi and Austin

Jill and Mariah

And that is where the pictures end because my camera ran out of batteries!  It was so crazy at the River because we went to join our neighbors and we also ended up seeing so many old friends.  On one side of us was some of my best friends from High School and their family.  On the other side of us was our bishop from Califonia's family and we got to see their new baby!  Talk about a 4th of July Reunion!

Note to self for next year-our little ones CANNOT handle early morning parade AND late night fireworks!  (Didn't get home until midnight.) One word-meltdown.

 I sure love the 4th of July, but it makes me a little sad because I know that summer is movin' right along!  Better enjoy every second of it!  It will be Christmas before we know it.