Let Freedom Ring!!!

Bass Lake Ward Pancake Breakfast and Bike Rally

Flag ceremony and Pledge

 Bro. Hopson had a puppet that sang God Bless America 

 The kids wore their shirts we had made the week before. The boys had ring pops and underneath it said "let freedom ring" and Brynn painted fireworks on her shirt and it said "Country Girl". They turned out cute but it just reminded me that I hate doing crafts with my kids.

 The ridiculous heat wore him out so flippin' early in the morning

BBQ and Swim Party at Barnes'

 Showing me his blue mouth from his ring pop

 Tanner always gets grill duty

 I had to try this idea that I saw somewhere. And my kids were more than willing to 

drink a few Jones' sodas

 Sketty loves the water. He was in the pool more than he was out

 Watch out! That's a mean look he's got, along with his water squirter

 Hailey and Lucy

 1-2-3-GO!!!

 He looks like he got like 3 ft of air on this one!

 Hudson found a million frogs in all the pool traps

 Um, guess who's winning this game 

 Hudson and Ryan became besties

 Lucy likes to taste-test all the food to make sure its okay to eat :)

 And of course these two are always off by themselves

 I saw the idea for the "sparkler" toppers and had to try it

 Addi wanted to try the slip and slide pretty bad

The look on his face is priceless

Someday he might totally love this photo

Does the word 'intense' come to mind??

Fireworks in the Park

 Instead of trying to find a spot to watch the city fireworks we hooked up with Lea and Ralph:) and Ali and her sibs for our own fireworks party. We all went in together and got 100 lbs of loaded gun powder! It took us quite a while to go through it all and all the men had fun being pyros for the night!

  . . . because why not give your kid a lighter and send him toward a box of fireworks???

 Sis had no problems lighting one either

 Tubby slept through the first half in the car and then came out to sit with me. Never moved and eventually fell back asleep like this. Lovvvvvve him!

 She looks all cute and snuggly right here but this was right before she went polar on me. It was a long day and Brynn was a hot mess by the end of it.

Our month has been crazy! Tanner and the baby and I flew to Vegas the first part of July so I could take some private photography lessons. I had a blast and I learned so much. We rushed home from the airport to pick up our kids and watch fireworks over CP Lake Saturday. Sunday we went to visit a cousin who just got home from the mish and early Monday morning was the 4th.

More to come on the rest of our jet-setting summer!

Camping at the property

 This was the morning we all split to come home.

The whole group

 Some of the families left Sunday morning to come home for church (whatever!), 

while some of us stayed. This rattlesnake tried to sneak

out of the wood pile undetected, but Jesse and Tanner took some

shovels to it and beheaded (and be rattled) it.

 Bryson is in the awkward stage of being too old for the little kids and too young for the big kids.

Fortunately Mikaela was nice enough to let him hang out with her all weekend,

which caused some teasing on the part of his younger sister.

 These two little munchkins found a common bond in food. Addi could often be found helping

Sketty clean his tray.

The Ranger was fun for everyone and the big boys (dads) liked any excuse to go for rides

 Whats a camping trip without a game of whiffle ball?  Dads against sons . . . heavily uneven.

 This is where the ladies (and babies) hung out all weekend

 I think Brando would steal my baby if I weren't looking

 Poor Clarky just wanted to get up on the tramp soooo bad, all weekend

 What pretty little girls

 Croquet, ladder ball, trampoling, water slide (unpictured), whiffle ball . . . .

what didn't we play?

Oh Jero!

Sweet Sketty Update 9 months

Here's what Stetson did for 9 months:

*learned to crawl on hands and knees right at 9 months

*started sleeping through the night again (YAY!)

*learned to shriek with an ear-piercing pitch (thank you older siblings)

*got his 8th tooth (and hopefully the last for quite a while)

*weighs about 22 lbs. still

*walks around furniture

*walks with a walker

*gives fake/courtesy laughs

*fell in love with PB&J's

*tried his first heavenly drink of soda (and LOVED it)

*learned to drink from a straw

*became addicted to Muddy Buddies and red licorice
        *took his first plane ride and trip with mom and dad
        *first camping trip

At Red Rock National Park in Vegas

It was HOT and BRIGHT

Sweet little boy fell asleep with Dad watching some baseball

Camping in Nevada City

He had a blast