4th of July!!!

I LOVE the 4th of July, it is absolutely one of my favorite holidays!

-I love our small town and how people put out chairs for the parade days in advance.

-I love the park, and all the amazing food!!

-I love spending the afternoon relaxing while the kids play in the water.

- I love the family BBQ

-I love sparklers

- And I LOVE Fillmore's amazing fireworks show!!!

Yay, 4th of July, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!

(we take this picture every year, and so help me, i'm taking it every year until the boys have their own families!)



Fireworks...

We always do our own fireworks a few days before the 4th. I was a slacker and realized to late on a Sunday that I couldn't go buy any, but luckily my mom came through and had already gottn some. :)

We let each of the kids choose out 3 (a small, medium, and large) that they were in charge of.

Eyes closed, but you still get the picture that Layton was VERY excited about it!

Parker with his fireworks, of of course his cup of tang???

Isaac, Layton, and Katie.



My Mom, Dad, and Brooke.



As I've mentioned before, we are vigilant about fire safety around here... :)



The kids all went up into the treehouse to watch the bigger ones.





Several mosquito bites, and a burn from a  rouge spark (that went DOWN MY SHIRT) later! A fun night was had by all!

sweet summertime...

Parker and Brooke on my parents deck. Oh how I love these summer days!!!

Movie Night...

Lance has been working late a lot, so one night the boys and I decided to go watch "Kung Fu Panda 2". It was really cute and we loved our little night out! :)

No Training Wheels!!!

The first night that we got over to Palisade, while I was making dinner the kids were all riding their bikes and Layton told my Dad that he wanted him to take his training wheels off. I thought there was no way he would go through with it, but he did. (So I had to stop making dinner and take some pictures instead ;)

He was so excited about it, he couldn't wait to get started.

After about an hour he was wheeling around the park all on his own, and could even start and stop by himself too. I am so proud of him, what a grown up little boy!!!



Camping at Palisade...

During the last week of May, right after school got out we went on a camping trip to Palisade State Park. My Mom, Me and my kids, and my brothers boys Devin and Isaac. Lance and my Dad made a few appearances along the way, but mostly stayed home to work. It was (a lot!) colder than normal, so there wasn't as much swimming this time. But the boys had so much fun, I love spending this time with them and my Mom every year!

Warning! I should have split this post into 2 parts because there are a gazillion pictures, so stay with me here!

Right before bedtime on the first night we went on a hike around the lake.

There are tons of minnows. the boys loved watching (and catching) them!



Layton taking a nap, while the kids do reading with Nana.



Parker was such a ham the entire time, he had so much fun :)



You know on "Tangled" where the old Cupid guy opens the peek hole in the door and says "Whats the password!" then "nope" then "not even close!" Haha, that's what Layton and Isaac did with the screen door the whole trip. We all thought it was super funny. :)

Again, Parker is just a hoot everything he says and does deserves wrighting down, never a dull moment with this kid!

Every night we would have dinner, go on a hike or a bike ride, shower and get ready for bed. Then the boys would watch a movie. We love my parents new trailer!

It still wasn't hot, but a little warmer than the day before. So the kids played and played in the water...

Devin and Isaac brought this inflatable boat. So they got it blown up...



And rowed all around the lake (they were actually tethered to the picnic table so if the wind blew, we wouldn't have to swim out to rescue them, but they didn't know the difference!)

We rented a paddle boat, and drug them around behind it.



These two (Layton and Isaac) are best friends, they are so cute together.



Ha! I couldn't leave these of Parker out. What a funny boy! :)

Playing croquet (ummm, I have no idea how to spell croquet, and I doubt I can get close enough so spell check can even recognize it!)

 Sweet Layton was so so good the whole trip! Plus he had a very exciting accomplishment while we were there that I will post about tomorrow!