July 4th

Yeah, yeah...talk about totally after the fact...I know...

We stayed home this 4th of July. It was the first time we did and it also marked the first major holiday we had not spent with family since Tami's death. It felt kinda weird. It was a nice day though.

We went to our friends' house and spent the day swimming and eating. I wish I'd brought my camera. The kids were loving the nice weather and were fishes in the water. Oh, and the food...oh my...were we in hog heaven! We had bleu cheese angus burgers, hot dogs, fresh corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, chips, pasta salad, deviled eggs, white texas sheet cake made into a flag---let's just say we did not go hungry.

After a leisurely day of swimming, we went down by the river to watch the fireworks. They did not disappoint. The kids were so cute. Chloe LOVED her glow stick and I think probably liked that more than the fireworks themselves. Though don't get me wrong---girlfriend loved the fireworks display and kept saying, "Whoa! Ohh!" All three kids were playing with each other and at one point, I got all teary-eyed {I know, I'm such the sappy mom} when Chloe was sitting on Carson's lap and he was hugging and talking to her all sweet as they were watching the fireworks and Kaiya was next to them with her head on Carson's shoulder. It's times like these where life just feels so perfect and makes me feel so grateful for my sweet little family.

Apparently they were all tuckered out from the fun day because when we pulled into our garage, this is how we found them:






But Kaiya must have heard the flash because she did not miss an opportunity to pose for the camera:


What a funny girl!

P.S. Yeah, I realize that it was like 80 degrees at 10 PM and we are wearing long sleeve shirts and pants, but hey...we didn't want to get attacked by the "skeeters." We were mocked by others, and sure we were sweltering in the warm clothes, but who got the last laugh when everyone had mosquito bites the next day...