Good Old Fashioned 4th of July Weekend

It all started on Friday when we got together with some great friends for a BBQ and kids water time. It just so happens that we are friends with Baby's Speech Therapist. (I had to keep reminding him that this was not work.) I got together at his and his wife, Amy's house and our friends Jared and Susan came too (Susan is my childhood friend, we grew up together just down the street from each other—which where I grew up, that meant we lived a mile down the road from each other). We had fun letting the kids play in the water, talking to each other and laughing at each other and things our kids would do. Man, we have good friends! And it's always nice to be with people who understand our kids and don't judge us or them. (sigh)

Baby really enjoyed their sweet little dog. He was quite a trooper and let her kiss him and grab his ears.

Then Saturday morning Marc went on a good ol' American horse ride in the mountains.

Sunday was church and family dinner and fireworks afterwards.

We slept in this morning after watching and hearing fireworks till the wee hours of the mornin'.

Then we got everyone up and ready to head out to my Uncle Brad's house.

It was so much fun. They have an above ground pool that we had fun in... at least we had fun as soon as we got used to the cold water. Brother was so excited to show us how daring he was by putting his head under the water. I hate this picture I am about to post, but it made me laugh so hard, I just have to share... I was just disgusted at how cold the water was, I guess...

Sister never got brave enough to get all the way in but her legs enjoyed the coolness and her Uncle Jeremy helped her have fun regardless.

Baby even let me put her feet and legs in the water... OK, it wasn't a "let" thing, she screamed when I tried to take her out so it was more of a demand on her part.

We even had a pig chase and an egg toss! How fun was that?! It was good to see the younger kids enjoying those types of activities. I was really surprised to see how far some of the cousins and aunts and uncles were able to toss those eggs without breaking them. I was also surprised to see that my purse and pool bag were right in the line of fire. Luckily I was able to get them out of the way before either I or the goods got egged. (Wipe sweat from brow here.)

We tried to get Baby interested in chasing the pig but she just didn't know what to think about this little pink thing.

Baby had fun hanging out with Dad while I was in the pool with Brother.

We got home and got the girls to bed and Brother went on a short bike ride with Marc and we watched all the now-legalized-aerial-fireworks going on here in the neighborhood! Woohoo! It was just fun.

Now for the picture of the day (drum roll)... then story behind the picture...

Marc is often quite quick and dry-witted and sees humor in many things, so you can understand mine, my cousins and her husbands reactions when Marc pointed to the portable fire pit, that for some reason had an antenna stuck to the top and said, "Yes, I can see the logic in putting an antenna on that. I'm sure it gets better reception. The flames come in clearer." Bwa ha ha ha!

Maybe you just had to be there. 

I still don't know why it has an antenna on it...
maybe for smoke signals.