Our Fourth of July

Yesterday was such a relaxing day. The first half was a bit like normal- breakfast, lunch, and naps. Except a few different things were thrown in. Mike, Matthew and Cathryn are in town and staying with us for a few days while Nana and Pops are in Alaska. So a van has been rented to chart all of us around in one vehicle and all six kids are having a blast!

After nap time yesterday, we all packed in the van and headed over to Nana's house. Even though there wasn't the big party like every year, we knew there would still be lots of neighbors out and we couldn't forget that Nana has a pool to swim in. With a quick stop to pick up pizza, we were on our way!

First we ate, and then spent a good hour or so playing in the pool. The boys loved when Cathryn and Michael would swim under the water around them, especially Jaxon, he would gleefully scream at the top of his lungs about the "shark". Belle jumped in the pool next to Michael; and Matthew preferred to hang out by the stairs still since he isn't tall enough to stand in the shallow end yet. As the sun went down, it got chilly fast and after everyone showered, we went out front to see the fireworks.

Jaxon was still not a big fan of the fireworks, keeping his hands over his ears almost the whole night. Towards the end of the night, the noises didn't phase him at all, and he really got to enjoy it. Lucas and Matthew loved handing out the firework boxes and tubes to Michael and Don to light, while Wyatt and Cathryn loved playing with the sparklers.

The highlight of the evening for me was once we all loaded in the van to go back to our house. It was so awesome listening to all the kids looking for all the fireworks outside of the van windows as we drove. Hearing the kids ohh and ahh over the fireworks was precious. A few times the boys would claim "I saw it, Mommy, I saw it!" when I know there was nothing to see, but it was funny that they were that excited.

After we got home and Leigha picked up the big kids, Don and I sent our kids upstairs to get ready for bed. Our neighbors diagonally in front of our house were setting off their own (illegal) fireworks. We got the boys in their pjs and all five of us sat on a bench, in the dark, only 15 feet away from the explosion of the fireworks. It was awesome. A perfect way to end our fourth of July.