Red, White and Blue

We had such a wonderful 4th of July. Saturday we had a few families in our ward over for a relaxing pot luck. It was so fun to get to know them all better and I truly enjoyed their company. I wish I had taken more pictures, but by the time I remembered to get the camera out half of them had left. We ate a lot of good food and then lit a few fireworks on the drive way. The kids of course loved the show.

We had a variety of reactions:

Dylan- Enjoyed every minute

Ashlyn- still a little leery of the big, loud ones (Last year she cried the whole way through them).

Corbin- Loved throwing the little poppers on the ground

Kamryn- thought they were way too loud.

In our attempts to find everyone a patriotic outfit we noticed that Kamryn had a plethora of such. So my little Ashlyn "borrowed" a few to make her own gear. She also happens to be very photogenic:(It might make you laugh to click on the collage to get a better look)

Let me explain: Ashlyn is a clothes hog! She will sneak in a snatch an article of clothing from someone else if she deems it awesome enough. Recently I caught her wearing Corbin's pajamas and tried to cover up her snatch with her own clothes over them!?!?! So needless to say, she was pretty thrilled that I gave her permission to wear these ridiculously small clothes. However, she has now confiscated them and labeled them as "hers."

Danny gave all the kids his one-of-a-kind "tattoos." He can melt a child's shyness with one of those! He also took some really "good" pictures of us. One of me and Kamryn during our driveway fireworks:

And one of his amazing wife Amanda:Sunday we went to see fireworks with what ended up being a huge group of friends. It wasn't a hard to request to have Ben, Ashlyn and Dylan hold hands until we arrived at our stake out. We found a great spot on a hill where it was not crowded and the kids had space to run. Unfortunately, someone made Dylan think he could run with a sparkler. That scared me to death. It was dark, and combined with uneven ground and Dylan's speed, I feared the worst. Our dear friends Danny (who is a Special Forces Soldier) and Amanda who are hopefully having their little baby Hazel as I type:

We really enjoyed teaching our children the history behind this special day and how this great event was a precursor to the restoration of the church. We are grateful for this wonderful nation and for many men and women to risk everything for us. I continue to pray that as a nation we will not forget that God has truly had a hand in the birth of The United States of America.