Our Fourth of July Weekend

We love celebrating the Fourth of July! This is the third year in a row that we have gotten together with Jordan's family to celebrate the Fourth. It's turning into quite the fun tradition! :)

On Thursday afternoon we drove over to Cedar Rapids to watch another of Grant's baseball games. No home runs this time, but Grant's team won, so that was very exciting! I spent a good portion of the game playing the 'Connect the Dots' game with Anna. Fun times! :) That evening, I painted little flags on each of Anna's fingernails! They turned out really cute, but I don't think we got any pictures. Oh well. Andria did hers with flags as well. I just went with plain nails since I didn't really feel like staying up late to paint on all the layers required for flags! Besides, I was going to wear pink on the Fourth. (I know, so unpatriotic! But, if you think about it, maybe it can count as a sort of girly patriotism since pink is like a really light red...never mind! Heehee!)

So Friday morning I got to sleep in a little, but Jordan was up really early to go play golf with Jason. Crazy boys! It didn't turn out so well for Jordan...I think there is a rematch in their future! ;) A little while after noon, I went in to town with Andria to pick up the fried chicken at Target. That ride home was torturous! Not because of anything Andria did (haha!), but just because we were both so hungry, and that chicken was smelling so good!! Needless to say, everyone was glad to see us when we got back home! (Although, come to think of it, they hardly said hi...just headed straight for the pans of chicken in the back seat...hmmmmm....) Finally it was time to eat! The spread was large and the food delicious! All afternoon, the kids played in the pool, and the boys played yard games. Julia and her friends from college (Jessica and Emily) arrived after a while with Kaden. Soon after that, volleyball got started, and (of course) Jordan was the MVP! ;) Probably the highlight of my afternoon was when Jason and Julia took Jessica and Emily into town for supper at Culvers and let me babysit Kaden while they were gone!!! :D

Finally, it got dark out, and the boys got started on the fireworks!!! It was such a great show!! Julie and Doug showed up just in time to get in on the end of it (silly kids, they didn't leave Granada until 6:30 or something!), but we were glad they made it!

Jason, Julia, and Kaden - all looking so patriotic!

A volleyball game - featuring Jordan's superb serving skills

Julia & I at the fireworks
(It got so cold when the sun went down! We were all dressed in sweatshirts and huddled under blankets!)

This is how Kaden enjoyed the fireworks. Apparently they didn't make much of an impression on him!

Andria and I watching fireworks

On Saturday, Jordan and I both slept in and got a nice slow start to the morning. After noon, we drove over to Fairfax to hang out with Jason and Julia and the rest of the clan. Jessica and Emily were still there, as well as Doug and Julie, and Mom and Jess had driven down that morning. Everyone was pretty tired from the day before, but we still had some good fun! :)

Julia, Emily, and Jessica made some scrumptious (and beautiful) desserts

Uncle Jordan and Kaden are good friends. Right now Kaden loves putting things in his mouth. One of his favorite items right now is a water bottle, preferably near-empty, but with enough water still in it to make some noise when shaken.

Here's Kaden attempting (for the 263rd time, maybe?) to fit the entire water bottle in his mouth. Can't...quite...make...it...!

Watching Kaden play with the water bottle is so funny and adorable! I took a video because the pictures just don't really do it justice! He's so silly! Kaden is absolutely undeterred by our laughter as he vigorously attempts to stuff the water bottle into his mouth!

This video is 43 seconds long:

The girls with their patriotic desserts...turned out cute, huh?

Me with my pretty mommy

Julie and I played Bocce Ball with Jordan and Junior. Jordan won (...I came in third, but I was just glad that I beat Julie)!! :D

Julie and I love Bocce Ball so much! We did a cheer for it! ;)

Jason loves Bocce Ball too, but he was too tired to do anything. We came in and found him like this. I guess July 4th pretty much wore him out! No energy left for July 5th!

And this is a picture of Jessica with my head. Hahaha! We had such a good laugh at this picture because it really looks like my head is not connected to anything. I just posted it so you could laugh at it too! ;)

Here's our retake of the previous picture :)

When Jason finally had the energy to wake up, he and Jordan played some Playstation. Julie took this shot of Jordan's serious game-face. So intimidating!

And I spent about a half-hour on the floor playing with Kaden. I just love all his smiles and his laughter!!

And, for the curious (and you know who you are), here is a picture of Julie and Doug. :)

Sunday we went to church in Monticello with Jordan's family. They have found such a nice church there! We stayed to enjoy a potluck, and then Jordan and I took Grant back home with us because the boys wanted to do some four-wheeling that afternoon. I sneaked in a little nap until the girls got back home. It turned out that Jordan's mom had gotten a flat tire on her car, and some of the boys at the church had noticed it and fixed if for her!!! That was so nice, since Jordan and Grant had already left! Later on in the afternoon, the three 'knights-in-shining-armor' came by for a little 'thank-you-treat' of watermelon and root beer. It was fun to get to know some of their church family a little better! Oh, and I forgot to mention one more exciting event that happened on Sunday afternoon. Jordan gave Grant a shiner! They were playing catch and Jordan's curve-ball caught Grant's eye. I haven't heard yet if it got really pretty or not. I felt so badly about it, but Grant said it didn't really hurt. (Yeah, right!)

Before going home Sunday night, we made one more stop in Fairfax to see JaJuKa. A great way to wrap up a fun weekend! :D