Wednesday, July 11, 2012

4th of July: 2012 (Part 2)

Yes, I'm posting about part 2 of our 4th of July first. For no other reason than I edited these photos first and it's time to get something up here about last Wednesday. I love the 4th of July. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love it because of the BBQ, hamburgers, homemade ice cream, watermelon, swimming, red, white and blue, and of course, my favorite...the fireworks.

Photobucket

So, the second part of our 4th of July day was spent at my parents house. Our dear friends the Bruehls (including Gina, Lindsay's mom) came to celebrate the holiday with us. They had no other plans so we were happy to include them in ours. Especially since Ethan and Blake are good buddies. My parents were there, of course, and also my brother and his wife, Jill.  

After we had our fill of delicious pulled pork sandwiches (and more), we hit the pool! At this point, it was already getting close to my kids' bedtime, but they didn't act like they even noticed. Logan and Kimberlyn...fast friends. Seriously, Logan loved her. And Kimberlyn was totally sweet to be his buddy.

Photobucket


Photobucket

Jumping into the pool is probably Ethan's most favorite swimming activity. And there was plenty of jumping on this night.

Photobucket

(Swim lessons are going well for Ethan, and he may not need that puddle jumper any more!)

Photobucket

Two friends enjoying swimming together...

Photobucket

And two daddies being silly. They should know that if they allow me to capture such things on camera, it will get posted on the blog. Although, I'm pretty sure this is more Casey's doing than Jake's. (He was making fun of me and Lindsay and how we pose for pictures.)

Photobucket

The same two daddies waving "hi" to our little one. I just love the looks on their faces.

Photobucket

Logan just wanted to run around the side of the pool watching the big kids, throwing in toys, and giving me a heart attack every time he got close to the edge.

Photobucket

He kept Mimi busy in the pool. Or I could say that Mimi kept him busy in the pool.

Photobucket

Photobucket

And he got in on the jumping action as well. He can't be left out, you know.

Photobucket

Ethan, Blake and Kimberlyn jumped in the pool one time after another for a good while. They had so much fun jumping together.

Photobucket

Photobucket

And here's Logan throwing toys into the pool that sink. I love his little sun-lit Alfalfa-style hair in the back.

Photobucket

And because dads are just big kids, they had to jump too. I love that these dads do things like this with their kids. They loved it. The kids, I mean. Well, probably the dads too. 

Photobucket

After a while, Casey must have thought the "regular" jumping wasn't enough...and he tossed Ethan way up in the air. Almost out of the frame of the photo (as you can see on the left below).

Photobucket

Ethan hit the water hard but came up smiling like it was no big deal.

PhotobucketThen the dads took turns throwing and flipping the boys, which was a huge hit. The dads got tired (literally) of this activity way before the boys did.

Photobucket


Photobucket

After swimming until it was almost dark, we got changed and went outside to prepare to watch the fireworks. We had some time to fill before the show started so the Bruehls pulled out the glow sticks and bracelets/necklaces that they had brought. So much fun.

Photobucket

Then we pulled out the sparklers we had brought. We didn't even talk about each bringing those things. We just did. And they were perfect for the kids while we were waiting. This was a first time for sparklers for all four of our kids, so we let the dads show them how it was done first.

Photobucket

Obviously, I did not bother to put the flash on my camera for these night time photos. And actually, I love that the faces are lit by the glow sticks and sparklers. With the exception of that last photo of Ethan and my mom down there (which I underexposed, making it much grainier than it had to be), I love the look of these.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Next up...the fireworks!

No comments: