Happy Fourth of July!

We had the best Fourth of July weekend in a long time!

It started out on Wednesday, when we got to visit the TNT Fireworks warehouse and pick up our free fireworks! These awesome folks have agreed to donate fireworks to our family every year until the kids are grown up. And they add another heart family each year! Valerie set it up for us and while we there we were totally spoiled with T-shirts, hats, and pins for the whole family, plus flags and candy for the kids. We are so grateful to them! You should definitely buy your fireworks from TNT every year!

Drew at the warehouse, with his flag, pin, shirt and visor!

Thank you TNT for all of these awesome fireworks!

Then on Friday we enjoyed a pre-holiday bbq with lots of our church friends at the Krengel's clubhouse. Everyone brought a dish to share and there was plenty of food! The kids enjoyed swimming and the parents enjoyed visiting. We even stayed for the fireworks show, which was good practice for the kids for the next night.

Some of the moms, watching the kids swim

Some of the kids in the kiddie pool

Saturday morning we went to the Carmichael parade, just down the street from our friends the Quayles' house. We walked from their house to the parade route and had great seats! All of the kids enjoyed watching the parade and it was a great start to our Fourth!

Keilani and Ava waiting for the parade to start

Jacob, Eben and Drew eating popsicles while they wait

Mommy and Drew

All the kids

We all went home and had naps in anticipation of staying up late to watch fireworks. Well, Dan and the kids took naps. My aunt and uncle came over for a bbq and while everyone else was sleeping we made a peach pie and batch of peach jam. Both turned out delicious and I'm excited to try and make some more peach jam all by myself.

Mmm, peach pie!

For dinner we had a yummy tri-tip, some corn on the cob, watermelon, asparagus, leftover red white and blue cake, and of course, peach pie! The weather was not too hot, so we ate outside and the kids got to run around and play until it was dark.

Eating outside with Aunt Marie and Uncle Terry

Me and Dan, enjoying the evening

Ava with the red, white and blue cake

Drew with the red, white and blue cake

Then it was fireworks time! I got earplugs for the kids to try this year, since neither one of them likes loud noises. They worked great! They were both able to stay and watch the fireworks and ENJOY them this year, which was nice! Our neighbors had some fireworks too, so we took turns lighting them off and even took a break to watch the ones we could see from our backyard at the Sunrise Mall. We all stayed up too late and had so much fun! It really was an awesome weekend!

Oh yeah, we had to crate and medicate the dogs this year so they could survive the loud fireworks. They stayed inside and listened to the weather channel.

Drew doing a sparkler

Ava and a sparkler (As a side note, I find it interesting that we tell kids all year long not to play with fire, and then on the 4th of July we hand them an exploding stick and tell them to wave it around in the air)

Watching the show!