4th of July Fun

I know some of you have been waiting for me to post about my week long cancer camp excursion, but I am still waiting on the pictures that our camera crew took on the river. There are some good ones that I don't want to leave out. So, until further notice, I'll just play catch up with everything else we've been up to.

Starting with 4th of July. One of my family traditions that I've participated in since I was my kids age is to attend the Oakley 4th of July parade and rodeo. I took the kids up to the cabin the night before with my Mom so they could have fun at the cabin too. Then we drove down to the parade. We arrived early to get a parking spot on the route and walked around and let the kids play on the playground. A few families from our ward/neighborhood were at the parade too. Our bishop grew up on the parade route. My Dad surprised us by showing up at the parade as well as my sister and her family. Dan had a few days off work and they drove down the day before, spent the night at my house and surprised us all at the parade. The kids had fun being with their cousins. They didn't get to play with Ethan and Austin when Cody dropped me off at their house for my cancer camp.

 Heather bought us both matching cowgirl hats from the little street vendor kids.

 After the parade I took the kids home and they participated in some fun neighborhood activities like a big water balloon fight. Tucker is getting pummeled by Josie here.

 Lots of little bums and kids shooting water everywhere!

 My Grandpa, parents, Cody's parents and his sister and husband came over for our awesome Midway 4th of July BBQ and fireworks.

 Mickey, Kristin, Chris and Cerola with Cole photo bombing the picture. Notice how we block our circle off with our cars. It gets ridiculous when fireworks are starting and cars rush into our circle realizing we have a great viewpoint. We've learned from past experience and shut it down.

 Our friends, the Ashursts, joined us for our BBQ. This is Jessica and Joe. Joe worked with Cody at Outdoors Unlimited at BYU a long time ago. Jessica and I became fast friends and our kids get along well.

 Aunt Heather painted Aubrey's fingernails patriotic colors.

 Cody getting ready to cover the street lamp so that we have optimal viewing experience for the fireworks.

 Little cousins. They are 3 weeks apart.

 Some sort of sparkler arabesque I assume.

 Copy cat. Daddy is pretty cool.

 Watching our own firework display.

 Our entire crew set up for the show to start. It doesn't get started until 10pm so the little's were squirmy and tired.

 My pictures don't do the fireworks justice, but we are really only a 1/2 mile from the bottom of Memorial Hill and you can hear the booms loud and clear. Cody took a couple pictures on his phone at the rodeo, so if I ever get those from him, I'll add them on.  God Bless America.

 My Grandpa sent me the link to this song that I think is appropriate for this time of year.