4th of July Fun 2014

Happy 4th of July!

I absolutely LOVE this holiday and am so grateful to live in this amazing country and to enjoy all the freedoms that we have.  I feel blessed every day to have been born in America and I am so grateful for our founding fathers and mothers that made it happen!

I saw the cutest hairstyle for the 4th of July and just HAD to try it.  Rio loved it!

I know, I am not the best hairstylist by any means but I gave it a shot and it was pretty cute.

She looks so cute!

Her poor little cheek though :(  After our hike to Rocky Mouth a few days prior, as we were coming down the mountain for went end over end and completely tore up her cheek and the left side of her body.  She is so strong though, she cried for just a minute and then got right up and was okay.

Love you Ri!

So great minds think alike apparently :)

My good friend Roxy and I both picked out the same shirt and did our little girls hair the same way!

So funny!

She sent me a text of her cute Reese and I laughed and laughed and just sent back the same pic to her.

That afternoon, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Morris' for a BBQ and fireworks!

Rio is my little tree climber.  So she went climbing up the tree with her Popsicle and I thought she was so funny so I took a pic.  You can tell by her expression that she didn't think it was necessary :)

Jax, Logan & Cole enjoying their Popsicles together

Blake is SO GOOD!

This is usually him when we go out places.  He is just fine to relax and sleep.

Kisty with her little cutie Preston

Erin and Jon - who are moving to Idaho soon.  BOO!  We will miss them so much!

Root Beer Float time!

*Rio, Logan, Jax and Austin*

Swinging their little hearts away

*Logan Cole, Rio, Ethan and Austin*

He loves himself some ice cream...

...looks like he is crying ice cream :)

Such a cutie!

Andrew getting ready for the firework festivities to begin - we have to start off with the "flying can."

This is there reaction - they loved it!

Let the party begin!  Do we have enough?

SMOKE BOMBS!

Sure kids...run through that burning hot smoke!

Here it goes...

YAH!

Grandma, Logan (who would run to her every time the boys would light the next one - ha-ha)

Masterminds at work...Andrew and Spence working out the serious nature of fireworks :)

They're brothers that is certain!

Grandma, Ethan, Jax, Logan, Austin, Rio and Kisty and Preston

Throwing the snaps

Pulling the confetti poppers

My cutie fam :)

Love all of you so much!

Oh Blake...he is so cute and such a good boy!

Spence was showing off his sparkler skills

Rio and Ethan sharing their snaps

Rio was SUPER nervous about doing sparklers this year because the last two years, she has gotten burned :(  Poor thing but I found this awesome trick on FB or Pintrest and it worked like a champ!

However...Logan did not like the idea one bit!  He threw his on the ground

Austin was calm as a cucumber and loved it of course

Getting ready for the big finale...

While we were waiting, Rio and I took some selfies :)

Logan and daddy ready for bed!

What a great day - we all had so much fun

Pre-4th of July festivities

I always love holidays and weekends because we get to go places as a family and have Spence come along and join us at fun places that we go together.

The morning of the 4th, we chose to hang out at Brookside Park.

And well, of course Logan decided to jump in :)

His shirt came off and on he played...

Nothing stops that little one from having fun!

These boys were having so much fun with these water gates.  They were being so creative and I loved watching them play.

My cute Rio!

Love her so much - she just loves playing in the water.

Little cuties!

Nice pose sweetie!

I looked around and couldn't find Logan or Spence and immediately I knew where to look!

Logan is like a ball magnet!  He just loves any sport and so does his daddy!  Good thing because this mommy is not athletic in the least sadly.  Can't wait to see what he loves and is passionate about.

Rio and Jax opening up the flood gates!

Making mud/sand pies together - great team work kiddos!

2nd hike of 2014

WOW!  We made it to Rocky Mouth; our 2nd hike of this season.

It was so much fun and of course, these kids are awesome!

 Let's get started...

*Rio, Reese, Jax & Carson*

*Logan, Avery, Austin and Lucas*

 Climbing up, up, up

 Logan showing me that "no he did not eat dirt."  Ya right!

He's so cute!

 There is a little cave that only goes back a little way but the kids thought it was pretty cool to sneak back there and explore

Smile!

Pretty cool cave for these littles. 

 The kids learned that yes, it is always easier to climb up and a little more tricky to climb down.  Thank goodness Roxy was able to get up there and we formed a little train coming down.

Thanks for rescuing Jax!

 We made it to the end - this beautiful waterfall and of course, the kids didn't stop there...they climbed all the way up to the top!

 Get up there!

Reese is on the left of the picture almost to the top.  She is such a brave little girl and loves climbing!

 They all made it - they were so cute trying to figure out where to stand

 You do it guys!  Way to go!  No fear here.

 Logan started to get a little nervous so after I got him down, I grabbed this quick pic of my other 3.  I was so proud of them.

 After the waterfall climb, we stopped and played in the run off water for quite awhile and looked for rocks.

 My little 4 :)

Blake stayed at home with Grandma Marsha and we sure missed him.  I so appreciated the support for Blake though so I didn't have to worry about him and could concentrate better on Logan.

 Love this girl so much!  She is so much fun and always up for an adventure just like me.  I'm so grateful for her and her spontaneous personality!

 Every time we go somewhere, I'm always tempted to maybe leave Logan because it would just be easier but then I always think that he deserves these fun experiences too and honestly, he is an amazing kid!  For not even being 2 yet, he did just as well as these 4 and 5 year olds.  So proud of my Logan!

 Rio found her rocks and was proud to show them off.

 Austin loves butterflies and so glad to find this one.  I'm pretty sure it had drowned but I didn't tell him that.  He was happy to "have it rest on my finger"

 Jax was awesome at finding really cool colored rocks.

Beautiful place!  Such a simple, easy, quick little hike and totally worth the beautiful reward at the top!

Okay, where to go next...