Fourth of July weekend

We had a "spectacular" 4th of July!

It started with a church activity filled with a flag ceremony

(note: Braxton is the tall one unfolding the flag)
The pledge of allegiance, which chokes me up.

A continental breakfast outside--so fun and easy to clean.:)
Numerous contests...Evan nearly won the burping contest.
A bike parade
(Can you tell who is my most competitive child?Hmmm)
Evan and Emma actually slowed down for the picture.

All of us were sporting our country's colors that day, but Steve took the prize!

He had been working on the beard since scout camp, and looked quite good, I must say.

I just didn't like to kiss it.;)

Lizzie attempted to compete in the bubble-gum-bubble-blowing contest.

Our Bishop actually won the water-balloon toss.

Tug-of-war was evenly matched with men vs. everyone else.

Steve ran the gunne sac races

He's so good to help those in need.


I love Emma's hair in this one!

Lizzie and I were chanting, "Hop! Hop! Hop!"

I do have to admit that I won the race amongst the women. Carter gets his edge from me, I guess. Steve was a little embarrassed at my dive to get across the finish line first. Hey, I'm a champion! What more could he ask for?!

That evening, we had Ryan, Julene, Lorilyn, and Ryan's parents over for dinner. Steve is trying to break in his new Bradley digitial smoker. MMMMMMmmmmm! They had to leave to get Lorilyn home, but Lori (Ryan's mom) got all of my kids a goody bag with pop-its, bubbles, airplanes, and sparklers and my kids couldn't rest until we had played with everything. As night set in, we stayed outside and did sparklers. I love sparklers! I love watching kids play with sparklers! I love the light in their eyes and on their faces.

While out, the boys also caught their fair share of fireflies. They are the coolest bug--just ugly when not lit up.

Sunday, we went to church...The girls in their cute skirts that I had finished in the wee hours of the morning. But they looked dang cute and patriotic!

All this celebrating does take a toll.

Emma caught a wee nap between church and our party of friends.

Three families whom we adore came over for dinner. It was quite the feast. Steve smoked ribs, pork, brisket, and sausages. They brought sides and dessert galore! We even had homemade root beer! Doesn't get much more American than that! Wow! We were all eating under the idea by comic, Jim Gaffigan. We don't normally eat all of this food, but it's what the founding fathers would have wanted. :) Of course, the rain washed us inside so that we could carry on all of our conversations and kids playtime. Carter and his friend, Christian, decided to stick it out and were drenched! They were not about to let rain ruin their time outside. I was so busy gabbing that no pictures were taken that evening.

Monday, Steve surprised all of us and took us to the Kane County Cougars game! All tickets were $5! We had a great time. They won 11-5. We got to see fireworks twice (after the star-spangled banner and after a homerun)!

Here are the kids with Ozzie, the mascot!

Evan got caught doing the funky chicken.

My favorite team, eating popcorn into the 2nd inning.

After the game, the kids can all run the bases.

Carter holds nothing back--ever.

Evan at the finish

Emma got to run with her dad!

I mean, Steve got to run with Emma! Yea!