4th of July

Ahhhh, the 4th of July. This is one of those holidays that I understand the importance of, but kind of hate. Maybe I'm just a holiday scrooge:) I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I just really don't care all that much for fireworks. They annoy the heck out of me, and I would perfectly happy if they were outlawed. As a child I was terrified of them, as an adult, I can appreciate the beauty of a big show, but am not sad if for some reason I don't see any. And the sooner people stop shooting them off, the happier I am. I mean seriously, do we really need to shoot the dang things off for a week and half straight! Ok, off my soap box about fireworks....as you can tell, I'm not a fan, which is probably why the 4th really isn't that big of a deal to me (our poor kids.....they will be lucky if their mommy gets Christmas decorations up every year, let's just forget about REALLY celebrating any other holiday with them:)).

This year, the 4th was okay. We had good days celebrating with family.....they just weren't my best days. On the 3rd, we went to the farm. We were going to grill and climb/ride on tractors and four wheelers. Well, we got an unexpected (and very very much needed) rain that day, so plans were changed just a bit. I didn't get any pictures from there because I was too lazy to get my camera out of the car since it was raining. The kids (and their cousin James) had a blast just getting to climb all over the tractors and trucks in the shed. Eli was so funny as first. Up to this point, he had been talking about "concretes" (what he calls combines) a ton. The farmer behind our house had just finished up harvesting his wheat a few weeks earlier, and Eli liked to watch him from the deck. So we thought he would like to see them and play on them. When we first walked into the shed, he was pretty unsure about the whole tractor thing. Those things are MASSIVE when you are standing next to them. I can't even imagine what it would seem like when you are only a couple of feet tall. But, once he climbed on one with daddy, he was good to go. He had a blast climbing up and exploring the insides of his concretes. When it gets cooler, we hope to take him out again to go for a ride.

The 4th was spent here at home. Kind of a crappy day for me.....I had a terrible cold, so I couldn't breath, had a headache all day, and we were in the middle of all of Eli's horrible sleeping/napping/no paci transistions, so I was just exhausted and grumpy. Add loud annoying people shooting off fireworks (a professional type show too....no kidding, HUGE fireworks, with no breaks for a long time) for 30 minutes the night before, and I was over the holiday before it even really had a chance to start. Regardless, we went to granny and papa's for some food, swimming, and fireworks. The night ended much later than normal for us, and this momma was worn out. Can't wait to do it all again next year:)!!!

Ok, some pictures.....it always takes much more time to get the kids situated and ready for a picture than it's probably worth....

BUT, persistence does pay off. Look how cute these two are. Nevermind the fact that I didn't get a single shot with both of them looking at the camera, or smiling for that matter....they are both sitting there nicely, I consider it a success!
Swimming fun before dinner. One of Eli's favorite things to do is to push his daddy into the pool. He just thinks it's hilarious and will do it over and over until Brian gets tired and stops.


Proof that I was actually there and swimming with the kids (at least some:), Brian is the swimmer in our family.....our kids are not going to get their love of the water from me....I'm more of a relaxing floater:))
Oh, on to the fireworks. We bought some fireworks thinking Eli would like to shoot them off, or at least hold something like a sparkler. He wasn't super into them the year before, but he was still pretty little. And even then, he eventually warmed up to the infamous little poppers. Well we thought wrong. This kid hates fireworks. He must have gotten that from me:)(I've decided that Eli must be a lot like me as a child, because man oh man, he grates on my nerves faster than anyone else....he knows just what buttons to push!). Since it really is pointless to shoot off fireworks until it starts to get dark outside, we decided to stay late, past bedtime, to shoot some off. It's not like the kids were going to be able to go home and go to sleep with all the noise anyways. This seemed like a good idea....but again, I was over it. I was tired, hot, and just ready to get home and tackle our bedtime battles with Eli. If he had enjoyed the fireworks, I MIGHT (though really, probably not) have had a better attitude. We got chairs all set up and ready, and started watching his cousin and uncles shoot some stuff off. Pretty much the second they started, Eli bolted. He wouldn't stay and watch. Every once in a while, I could coax him outside with me and get him to sit on my lap and watch for a little bit. This made me so disgustingly hot and sweaty, but I was happy to not chase him around. Then, someone would shoot off some really loud, not even pretty, colorful fireworks, and he'd take off again. So, it's safe to say that Eli didn't hold any sparklers, or even step on any poppers for that matter. No matter who tried to get him to sit with them and just watch (from a very safe distance, as far away as possible, of course), he wouldn't do it. Maybe he will like them a little bit better next year.

This is where he was trying to watch the fireworks:) Granny and papa's front porch. He kept running back here and trying to hide behind the bush. Kamdyn, being the awesome, supportive little sister that she is, came back with him a couple of times and tried to check things out:)
You an tell he's really enjoying himself, can't you:)
She actually seemed to enjoy all the happenings. I think she was getting pretty tired, but she was happy to just sit and watch. She will probably be the one shooting things off with her daddy next year, and Eli and I will be sitting in the shrubs:)

Even though it wasn't necessarily a good day for me, we had a good holiday. It was fun being able to spend time with family and celebrate the freedom of the great country we live in. So thankful for it all!