Tyler Fireworks

I think I took 200 pictures over the4th of July- but it's my favorite holiday. I love being with family, parades, bbq's, fireworks, flags and fun.

After the McBride family bbq we headed (quickly) (possibly a little too quickly) (possibly too quickly enough to draw attention from a uniformed guy with colored lights) (but we won't talk about that.) Max, Daisy and Grace- it is so hard to get a good picture with all of them.

Every other year Grace has loved fireworks, but this year so was scared. I think she was really doing it for the attention, but she liked the big city fireworks.

Grace and Grandma Ruth watching fireworks-

Max loved them!

Sparklers scare me-

Yes, it's an honest smile from her! Aunt Beth, Grandma Ruth, Aunt Caitlin and Grandpa Todd lighting fireworks and helping kids-

Afterwards we sat on Ruth and Todd's balcony and watched the Kaysville City fireworks while we ate homemade Oreo ice cream. It's the perfect spot to watch the beautiful show!

(And for the record, someone who wasnt' me got clocked going 19 over and somehow did not get a ticket.)(I was shocked!)

4th of July Parade

I'm almost caught up! Go me....

Anyhow, do you struggle getting your kids to sit still and look at the camera? This was like the 50th picture and it's not all that great - but I got one!
Grace loves Brenda - we're walking to the parade in Hyrum. She asks why Brenda isn't still at grandma's, she just doesn't get she lives 15 hours away.

Nicole had our space at the parade saved for 4 days - right in front of the cemetary, just like every year. Max wanted to go in "that cage and play." Yeah, no.

Cassie and Josh, do they look like love birds?

My nephew Ty and his killer smile.

My brother Patch - first fourth since his mission

Grace and my niece Adi - they insisted on wearing the necklaces under one arm

Brother Jordan, Tytan, and Brenda

Me and my mom- I love her!

Brother Jordan - he's cool.

Mike and Max waiting for the parade to start-

Niece Nayvie

Sister Nicole and baby Emery

Grandpa Guy is in the firetruck, thats him arm...

My nices Maggie and Libby were in the parade

The parade was only an hour long this year. After the parade we had a BBQ at my moms and then the kids swam and Mike, my mom, Brenda and I went to the town square to walk through the booths. We had a great day!

Sugar Cookies @ the 4th

What kid doesn't like to decorate sugar cookies? Brenda watching the kids decorate, or eat while decorating, their cookies.

Nayvie and Bracken were so particular about their frosting, versus Adi, Grace and Max who shall we say, slopped it on.

I think this one was Ty's-

This was Grace's - it actually dried pretty well and we were able to lift the cookie off the plate to eat it. I was surprised the frosting hardened and dried so well.

Nayvie's

Grace- not looking at the camera and Adi being a total cheese.

Just a little messy - what a good idea Aunt Veronica had... glad the mess was at Grandma's house!

For the record, I won't buy the sugar cookie add on through Bountiful Baskets again, the cookies had very little flavor and the frosting was just too runny. It was nice not to have the baking mess and the kids really enjoyed the activity.

Fireman's Waterfight

We take our water fights seriously. Seriously. And, we are ALWAYS up for a seriously good one.

Each year we go to the Hyrum Fireman's water fight the Saturday before the 4th of July. My family fills 500 water balloons, brings water guns, swords, buckets, bins and cups - we do it for the kids....because they enjoy it so much...seriously. My family getting ready at the park (we'd already filled balloons for 2 hours at this point, 1/2 of us were already wet.)

Our friend Brenda from California spent the 4th of July week with my family - she didn't have intentions of getting wet - but once things got going she was a great team member! (Pic is Brenda and my nieces Nayvie and Adi)

My niece Maggie and Max going after Grandpa Guy, he's a fireman so he's fair game!

Love this picture - Grace had so much fun, plus Max is getting it in the background.

Last year my kids had a hard time with the water guns, they were too hard to fill up, and they couldn't spray the good ones very well and the small ones didn't work so well so this year I found water swords - they loved them.

My niece Adi and nephew Tytan-

Grandpa Guy just waiting-

Sister Cassie in the background with her boyfriend Josh- I'm pretty sure it was at this point they started attacking me with those very water balloons. But I got them back! (It's for the kids, like I said.)

Yes, that's me in the green shirt- only a little wet.

The fill up station-

The water fight lasted about an hour. 45 minutes in I lost Max - it was crazy and there were so many little kids and adults and fireman and fire hoses and I just couldn't see him. I made two circles around the park and couldn't find him - cars were starting to leave and I got Mike and we headed to the parking lot. I couldn't find him anywhere- we went through the lot got my brother and sister's and circled the park again, by now I'm a nervous wreck! My sister's oldest son went to the ball diamonds so I started heading over there when I found Max. He had been up on the firetruck spraying the big hose and the look on his face was pure joy. I'm sure the look on my face was a look of serious relief.

I love little towns, love that they do fun things and that the fireman let us get them wet every year.

(Just for the record, the fireman who has it out for me each year got it good, somehow I got a hold of the fire hose and I'm pretty sure he was at least as wet as I was!)

Swimming Lessons

The kids started swimming lessons in June at Layton Surf N Swim. The very first day they have all the parents and children sit on the bleachers and the Swimming Manager comes up and talks to the parents. He instructed us to not interrupt the class, not try and teach over the teacher, not to come up to the side of the pool, not to signal our kids and if there was any problems to address them before or after class. Then the teachers come up and call their class, the class in turn follows the teacher to their spot at one of the pools. There were two preschool classes and Grace and Max were in the 2nd class with teacher Kayla and Kristine. In my head I thought do I follow them? But then I thought they will be fine, they will be with their teachers and will do better without me sitting right there.

However, as they were walking to their classes somehow they started following the other preschool class and ended up in the wrong pool. The other preschool class thought Grace was with the older class so she starts walking out into the middle of the big pool all by herself, she's getting deeper and deeper and deeper and I was like I know I'm not suppose to say anything but hello there's a 4 year old, my 4 year old, almost neck deep by now! So I start yelling at the preschool teacher and they said she's not in our class - at this point I was like I don't care if she's not in your class she needs help!

Grace was so brave she was just trying to get to the other class like they told her, but it gave her mamma a little panic attack. Eventually we got her to the right class, in the right pool and the rest of the classes went smoothly. Everyday the kids started out sitting on the edge of the pool playing Motor Boat Motor Boat and would kick and splash.

Splashing as it turned out was what Max did best. After the first day I sat right by the small pool, and watching Grace and Max was a little snippet of what schools going to be like. Grace was always asking to be first to try something, asking if she did it right, good enough and if they wanted her to try again. She loved every minute of it. Max was always distracted, splashing when he wasn't suppose to be, teasing the girls, making the boys laugh and I can't tell you how many times I heard "Max, come back over with the class," or "Max, if you can't stop splashing we'll have to get your mom." Grace is my little brown noser and Max is my little class clown.

The kids played Speckled Frog on a log and jumped into the pool some days. Grace really liked jumping in, but Max went all the way under one day and was so mad at the teacher he refused to get back in the water. He kept saying "teacher threw me in the water". It made me laugh.

The kids would practice assisted front floats and back floats and then they'd put their face in the water and blow bubbles.

Here they are playing Alligator alligator what time is it? They would have one kid stand on the other side of the pool and the kids were suppose to only go one step for what ever time it was. It didn't work so well as all the kids just raced from one end to the other no matter what time it was.

One other thing about the first day, when we got to the car Grace asked why they didn't teach her how to swim that day. She had really high expectations!

The whole point of the preschool class is to get the kids comfortable in water and not afraid of getting their faces wet - they both passed the class but I'm not sure I'm ready to move them to level 1- they all looked so old! Overall I liked their teachers and the facilities. Sitting in the shade at 9 am wasn't my favorite and some days the kids were cold but overall I would go back.