Fourth of July

We had a very fun, busy Fourth of July this year.  It started bright and early with a 6:00 am flag raising and breakfast at our church.  We actually had to wake the kids up - something we rarely do because they are such early risers.

Ward breakfast.

The kids loved to run around the building.

Later that morning, we met David's family in town for the parade. I love Rexburg's parade.  It's just long enough (Ogden's parade was too long and way too hot!) and the kids get tons of candy.  It's even more fun when the cousins are all together.  You should see the swarms of kids dashing over each little salt water taffy on the ground - it's like hungry sharks.  Alison had to help Josh because he just wasn't fast enough to swoop in on the candy.  They all got more than they needed. 

Bronson's not a real parade fan yet.  He slept through a big chunk of it.

Just some guy walking through the street with his pet boa.  He let the kids touch it.

Sam (in stripes) Nicki, Nolan, Isaac, Josh, Ali, Abby

The best part of the parade was the military tank that blasted the kids with water.

In the afternoon, David worked on building the goat shed and I cleaned the house.  Then, I took the kids to the firework stand, the grocery store and the park.  We had a great time. 

It was Nicole's turn to teach Family Home Evening.  She wanted to do it on her own, so we let her.  I think in the future, we'll have to be a little bit more involved in the planning, but it sure was cute.  Nicki taught us about "Adventure."  She said, "Now, some adventures can be dangerous. Like if you went on an adventure in the jungle, you might get eaten by a tiger.  Or, someone might try to get you and kill you or marry you!"  That was about it for the lesson part.  Then, we went on and actual adventure.  We got in the van and started driving.  At each intersection, David would ask one of us to choose a direction.  We took turns deciding where to go.  We ended up out in Burton somewhere.  The cool thing was, we ended up driving right next to a wild deer.  She let us get quite close to her before bounding away.  It was neat.  Nicole said that she gave a silent prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father for letting her see the deer and for letting us not kill it.

Which way should we turn, kids?

After a half hour or so, we stopped "adventuring" and just drove over to Kristi and Terry's house.  They hosted a hot dog roast.  Can you believe it!?!?!  They just moved in last week!  Amazing!  Anyway, the food was yummy and we ate until we were stuffed. Then we went home and had our annual driveway firework show.  We were up way past usual, but we had a great time.

The only picture I took at the hot dog roast.  I didn't take any of the firework show.