Fourth of July

We had a pretty great 4th of July. We awoke to Savannah peeking into our room and saying, "Mom, there's a hot air balloon in our front yard!"

So that explained the noise.

I went outside with Sav to catch this sight:

Had to get Savvy in the shot. What a fun way to wake up on the Fourth!

There were other balloons landing throughout our city. How lucky we were that they picked our little culdesac to touch down.

We got to watch the balloon go down...

 ...down

 ...down

 DOWN!

At 10am my folks and the Mann family came over for a 4th of July Brunch complete with Buttermilk syrup and Independence Fruit Salad.  Poor Rebecca was exhausted from yet ANOTHER false alarm at the hospital.  Jake was, too, but you wouldn't have guessed it because he was his usual chipper self.  We enjoyed everyone's company and took a dip in the pool after breakfast.  It was hot as blazes outside.  Kyle enjoyed his day pacing around the yard and house puttering around fixing this and that. I think that's his most favorite thing to do in the whole wide world.

Kyle laughs at me whenever I tell him how much I love going to the Stadium of Fire. I'm not sure why he laughs, but he does. This being our third one, it's safe to say it's our family tradition. Kyle told me if we were ever invited to go boating for the day, he'd totally give up the Stadium of Fire for that.  

I tell him we would do both. Duh!

My mom always gets the kids 4th of July shirts and I happened to snag some pretty great shades at the Target dollar spot a few weeks ago just for this occasion.So here the darlings are, all ready to go!  Poor Ruby was feeling sick and wasn't particularly thrilled about getting her picture taken...

 YAY!

  Back down again...

 ...and she's done for the day!

This year the Beach Boys performed and they were incredible. Savvy and I had a great time jamming to their songs. My favorite part still was the jets flying overhead before any of the performing started. My heart pounded into my throat and I was  flooded with feelings of gratitude for our freedoms in this country.

While walking to our seats, we ran into our dear friend, Jill, whom we were planning on meeting up with the next day. Jill was in town from Chicago with her family -- which is how we knew them.  About 10 minutes later after we had sat down, what do you know, Jill and her brood had seats on our same exact row.  That was pretty crazy.

Other than Savvy and Cade having to go to the bathroom 3 times during the Stadium of Fire (and we were in the middle seats in our row-- of course!) it was a great evening.

God Bless America!!!