4th of July

This year, for the 4th of July, we kept it simple.  We had some friends over for dessert and fireworks, and that was about it!  Our backyard turned out to be the perfect place to watch fireworks when you have small children.  Right behind our house, there is a road that goes to a parking lot for the soccer fields behind our house, and since our yard is fenced in, the men all jumped the fence and lit the fireworks on the road.  All kids were safely contained in our backyard!  We didn't have to worry about them getting too close.  It was perfect!  Then a little bit later, people all around us lit off the really big, "real" fireworks - like what you see in a big stadium.  The closest ones were 2 doors down from us!  We could choose either our driveway or our backyard and get a great show all evening long.  It was great! 

Here's a few pics from our day.....

The really yummy dessert I made! 

Our set up...  It was raining and we all got soaked, but I personally didn't mind it! 

The "big" kids (and one of the missionaries) watching the show

These boys thought it was really funny to stick their fingers in their ears and just laugh - hysterically! 

Of course, the kids did sparklers! 

One of the many fireworks displays we could see from our backyard! 

Happy Birthday, America!! 

Vacation, Part II - Utah!

Remember that vacation we took in June?  The one I've only posted about the first half of?  Yeah, well, here's the second half of that vacation..... a month later!  Most of our family lives in Utah, and so we had a very busy week there.  There were still some family/friends we didn't get to see, and others we would have liked to spend more time with.  Here's a bunch of pictures of some of the things we did. 

Grandma Deeben (my mom) turned the water on for him!  The things he got away with at Grandma's house!! :)

Playing at an awesome park with Uncle Justin and Aunt Julie (Matt's step-siblings)

Joseph and Cousin Tyler playing at the park.

Gma & Gpa Downing and my brother's family came to the Dinosaur Museum with us (though I didn't get a pic of the group)

Darren and Cousin Aleia playing at the museum.

Joseph thought the dinosaur was tasty!

Uncovering dinosaur bones in the sand box!

At my brother's house, the kids took turns jumping off the stairs onto the giant bean bag chair.  It was VERY entertaining!  We all had a great time!

I actually jumped off too (just once), but I don't have that pic. 

Matt had to 1-up the kids!

Dog pile on Uncle Matt (my brother)!

Grandpa Downing (my dad) with the boys at a family reunion.

Family gathering at my mom's house.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed their root beer floats!

Singing his little heart out, making up his own song!  J sat in a puddle outside.

Siblings!  Can you tell?  

Grandpa Coleman (Matt's dad) enjoyed seeing the boys. 

We went to a little diner all about trains with my parents (mom/step-dad), and the boys thought it was pretty cool!  The inside had a train track with an electric train on it, running throughout. 

Two families that we just LOVE!  The Scotts, and the Lundgrens!  We were all friends in Alaska, and now they both live in Utah.  I'm so glad we got to see them!

My niece leading D around on a pony.  D didn't particularly care for it. 

Darren and Aleia climbing Grandma's apple tree!

Grandma Kathy (Matt's mom) with Joseph.

I LOVE this picture of these two! 

We took the boys for a walk around the outside of the temple.  Matt and I also got to go with some of his family.  It was wonderful! 

We also had a great big family get together with all of Matt's family, but we didn't take any pictures.  It was great to visit with everyone on this short, fast, fun-filled trip! 

New Family Pictures

While we were visiting Alaska, we asked my friend Kim to take family pictures for us (to see her photography blog, click here).  We received the CD in the mail this week, and we are LOVING how they turned out.  The boys mostly just wanted to run, so it was a pretty difficult task to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time and smile, but I think she did a pretty good job capturing everyone's personality. 

Here are several of our favorite shots:  

The next 3 must have been taken in rapid succession....

At one point, Darren got pretty excited to run down to the creek, and just as he got to the edge, he either tripped or slipped, and fell in!  Fortunately, it was pretty shallow, and Kim was quick with her camera!  He obviously wasn't too upset by it!