4th of July

We had a GREAT 4th of July this year!  Originally the only thing we had planned was breakfast at a friend's house.  There was good food and lots of friends...what is better than that?  (Other than being with family of course.)  Jacob even got to climb down into a storm drain to rescue a soccer ball from the guys' soccer game.  He thought it was cool to be the hero.

After breakfast I called our friends the Benoits and we met up with them at the pool for some swimming.  Dallin stayed home so that Landon could get a good nap in before staying up late for fireworks.  While at the pool we decided to have a BBQ that evening.  It was good food, complete with homemade apple pie.  The adults played games while the kids made lots of noise upstairs, doing who knows what.

 As it started to get dark we headed back over to the Ashford's house.  Since they live just outside of the city limit it is legal to do fireworks on their street.  Earlier in the day Savannah and I had gone and bought a variety of different fireworks.  We started out with sparklers...

 ...but Landon was not a fan at all.  He spent the rest of the time on the blanket in either mine, Savannah's, or Dallin's lap.

 

 Some of the cheapest fireworks were the most fun.  If you look close you can see the smoke trail leading to this one.  It spun up really high in the air like a little frisbee.  Dallin shot off all of our fireworks for the kids and helped put on a good show with Rick Ashford and other friends.

 Since I'm rarely in the pictures, I asked a friend to take one for me.  I love it!

 Zach loved the little snap poppers and spent most of the night doing those.

 Connor ran around with Grant and some other new friends in total excitement.  He LOVED the fireworks!

 This picture of Dallin is actually to show where their driveway drops down into a little drainage area.  Dallin had me take over lighting the fireworks for a few minutes.  After only about one minute I stepped back out of the street to get away from what I had just lit and stumbled backwards, taking one wrong step that toppled me over and onto the cement drain.  I have 3 good bruises and 2 big scrapes from it.  I also managed to land my hand in their flower pot and break their lighter in the process.  I decided my one minute of lighting the fireworks was done.

 

 We bought an aerial set that did 25 explosions up in the air.  That was our favorite by far.

The last set that Rick did was a big one too.  But instead of going up it mostly went out and all around the cars and people.  Kids were screaming all over and that was our end to the night.  Jacob was especially scared by the experience of having fireworks zooming all around him.  After the fact it was kind of funny, since nobody got hurt.  But we definitely won't be buying that kind next year!  Thanks for a fun day friends!

Swim Lessons

Savannah and Connor did swim lessons at the end of June.  They were in the same class since it was the first time for both of them.  Savannah already knew how to swim some, but got much more confident by the end of the two weeks.  Connor started out the summer not even wanting to put his face in the water hardly, and is doing so much better about being under the water.  He won't be swimming on his own this summer though.

 Savannah doing the "cannonball float."

 This is a huge step up from our first couple of times at the pool.  He loves to put his face under now.

 Connor doing his favorite "Captain Streamline."

 Connor saw a moth or butterfly on the side of the pool and convinced his teacher to pick it up for him.

 

 

 Connor and Savannah trying out the backstroke...

  Savannah loves diving down for rings now.

 Connor is most proud that he learned how to do a cannonball jump into the water.

 Connor moved up to Level 2 by the end, and Savannah to Level 3.

Pack Meeting

Zach earned a bunch of stuff for his Bear while he was at Day Camp this year, and he's also been working hard with his den.  He earned 12 belt loops and 6 pins at pack meeting!!!

 Great job Zach!

Fort Fun

A couple of weeks ago we had Stake Conference instead of regular church on Sunday.  We were done and home by noon.  Zach was bored and asked if he could make "creations" out of the recycle garbage.  I was happy he found a way to keep himself busy and happy.  Soon Savannah joined him and they made "Boxot," which is a box robot.  Then they made "Soda Men" to keep Boxot company.

 After we ran out of recycle trash Zach built himself a little fort in the computer room.  He sold stuff to the other kids for "tickets."  The tickets were little scraps of paper.  Connor and Savannah had a great time cutting up millions of tickets all over the guest bed.  Their favorite thing to "buy" from Zach were his old Silly Bandz.

 

The other kids decided they needed forts too, and they all built themselves little forts all over the computer room.  That is the only place that they can all play together without the Landon Destructo Boy ruining things.  Connor named his fort "Tiny Village," which I later learned is an App game.

 Savannah had the smallest space, but was very content in her little corner by the scrapbooks.

 Jacob's was appropriately named "Fort Jacob" and was loaded with all kinds of Nerf and Star Wars weapons.

 My favorite thing about the day was the fact that 4 kids played together nicely for the ENTIRE afternoon and well into the next day.  I think we will be have little forts more often, as well as recycle garbage men.