4th of July

I know I shouldn't admit this, but I was not looking forward to today.  Every time I did, I just got homesick for Monroe.  I loved the 4th there, with the pancake breakfast and flag raising starting off the morning.  Then games at the park.  Our last year there we had the Thatcher's huge water-slide in our backyard with tons of friends to barbecue with.  The best part was at night when our street practically blew up!  Fireworks for 3 hours straight :-)  Then I loved climbing on the Dyer's roof to watch the big fairground show and the sometimes bigger neighborhood show.  

We were planning to go, but then learned most of our buddies would be out of town.  Long story short, my mopey attitude got in the way of organizing anything this year.  But, luckily I got with it, sort of. 

I love my Uncle David's pool.  He lives in a beautiful neighborhood and not too far away. 

We loved it!  We stayed all afternoon and the kids would've stayed longer, but Jane was done.  I was also missing my cousin today because we were with them last year on this day :-(  

Kaleb refused to wear the festive shirt I got for him.

Braydan let the kids spend $5 each on firecrackers and surprisingly, it kept us entertained for almost an hour.  

This is how we roll.  Fire and scissors.  What more could a baby want?

 Kaleb kept saying, "I'm just gonna make my own fireworks.  All I need is cocoa powder?  Right Mom?"

Right.

Happy, happy 4th of July!  Yes, I'm happy now.  I just need to choose to be happy all the time. . . . .