Our busy weekend last week flowed right into a busy start to the next week. Much of Monday was spent preparing for the July 4th activities. Daddy did work in the morning, so while he was working the kids and I went cherry picking with Grandpa and Grandma - yum!
After we picked our sweet and tart cherries by the handful and filled our buckets in short time, we headed back to have them pitted. While we waited, we saw a big cargo plane fly over and spent some time talking about Uncle Kevin a little.
And then we waited some more... and some more... and some more... for over an hour and 20 minutes we waited for our cherries to be pitted (we were told 15-20 when we agreed to it)! So, one of the family members from the farm noticed my antsy girls and was very kind in offering to take them and Grandpa on a golf cart ride around the farm. Of course they agreed!
Monday afternoon, we worked on getting the truck washed and waxed for the parade and then spent the evening with friends. We lit off some fireworks for the kids...
By request, the pooping dog firework came out several times and was the biggest hit with our crowd!
Followed closely by the tanks.
And the parachutes too!
Elam took it all in stride, except for a few loud ones.
Tierney started to loose it as the night wore on, tired already from several very busy days.
As dark arrived, we made our way out toward the highway to watch the Gun Lake Casino fireworks from a parking lot. There were some very cool ones, lots of shapes and new fireworks none of our crowd had seen before!
Tuesday, July 4th, started bright and early as Daddy was off to gather freezers filled with freeze pops from church to load them onto the trailer for the parade. The kids and I made our way to the Dorr parade line-up later in the morning - after we first made stars in each of the girls' hair.
We had a good group show up to the parade in Dorr to help hand out freeze pops, for which we were very grateful.
The older kids rode in Daddy's big truck as he pulled the trailer of freezers.
Elam rolled along in the stroller while I pulled a wagon with coolers and pushed him.
As the parade started, we were entertained by some planes.
One parade done, we made our way back home, arriving around 1. We headed into town to grab some lunch and then scrambled back home to decorated bikes for the children's parade and re-load the freezers for the main parade. The kids took their ride around the block in the parade...
And then were rewarded with ice cream coupons and a glow stick.
With little time to spare, we headed back to line up for the main parade where far fewer church friends showed up to help hand out freeze pops. This time, Grandpa drove Daddy's truck so he could help hand out freeze pops.
The day flew by, with little chance to relax or rest. Hot and wore out, the kids made it to the trampoline with the sprinkler while the guys returned the freezers to church. It was too inviting to decline, so this Mommy also enjoyed a few moments jumping and cooling off.
After we found ourselves some food, dusk was approaching. We found Uncle Andy and Sara and hung out with them for a bit, and Ezri was thrilled to get to help fly his drone.
We lit off some more fireworks for the kids and played with sparklers too.
Then we loaded up again and headed off to watch the main event of the evening, the big fireworks! Tierney made it about half way through before she fell asleep, Elam slept the whole time. Tired kids barely made it back home awake.
We were glad when Wednesday rolled around and offered us some respite from the chaos of the prior days. There was still room for fun and celebration, though, as it was Barb's first birthday! Ezri had gifts for him and each of the girls got to present him with one.
Cardboard, paper and tubes to chew on - all his favorites! And then... there was the "cake" Ezri worked very hard on.
He thoroughly enjoyed it!
We enjoyed a quiet Thursday, though it was filled with packing, because Friday afternoon we took off for a camping trip! A much needed vacation for our group who had been working so hard the prior few weeks on many big projects for church. We didn't go far - about 2 miles was all it took. East Lake offered us 2 nights and 3 days of escape. I had been a little skeptical about camping so close to home because I questioned how much we might return home for stuff, but we managed to pretty much stay there and just enjoy the quiet.
The girls had a great time sleeping in the tent...
Saturday morning provided us with a little garage sale fun in Sandy Pines before returning to camp
for an afternoon of swimming! The lake water was very warm and inviting. Elam's first encounter with swimming, he had a blast and didn't fuss a bit!
The rest of the kids had a blast swimming, sliding, jumping and playing.
Aside from the clouds and breeze chilling us a bit, it was a perfect afternoon to swim. While some of the crew stayed in and played, Elam and I made our way to the sun for a nap
while Tierney watched some ants with Tony.
After dinner, we took the kids out in the paddle boats for an hour, what fun!
Sunday morning, we attended the church service at the camp. The kids did great! Daddy and I enjoyed singing some older hymns and listening to a great message.
Elam napped. Even Sadie got to come to church with us, and she did great too!
It was sad to pack up and leave because the time away didn't seem long enough, especially knowing how much will be in our schedules again very soon with weddings and family visits and so much more.
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