Thank you Columbus!

I'm so glad we have this day to celebrate the discovery of America.  Why don't we have the day off of school?  Why don't we have parades and parties and barbeques??  Maybe because it's not as fun in October (or maybe we are trying to forget the decimation of native peoples that occured because of his discovery).  At any rate, hooray for America!  Maybe I should say thank you to Washington and Jefferson and all those guys for giving us a real holiday to celebrate . . . 

Happy 4th of July!! (Yes, I know this post is a little belated, but better late than never.  Maybe.)
The 4th for us is all about family and firetrucks. And even though I was SERIOUSLY jet-lagged, we had an awesome weekend. I got home from India Saturday afternoon, crashed about 6pm, woke up for good at 4am and when the fam finally woke up 3 hours later, we had a yummy breakfast and then headed up to Russ' Uncle's cabin for the day.


It felt so good to be outdoors after spending 3weeks in a city of 7 million people.  My favorite part of the day?  Riding 4-wheelers to the top of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

And hanging out with family, of course!

 

And for the actual day (post should be titled "How much fun can you pack into one day") . . .

FIRETRUCK Tradition:

 

PLAYTIME at Murray Park:

 



POOL PARTY with firefighter friends:

 

 

 

And finally FIRECRACKERS and GLOWSTICKS at Grandma's:

 

 

So, thanks again, Benjamin Franklin and George Read, and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence.  We truly are grateful for this land of the free!

HaLLoWeeN 2010

CoRbIn - The Mummy.  Costume hand-sewn by Dad with first aid gauze. Head wrap and face paint my Mom.  Butterfly bandage (yes, it's real) from getting hit by a door at school.

CoDy - The Ninja.  Black shirt and pants from DI, weapons $5 at Walmart.  The rest of the costume, including the mask, silver stripes and velcro chinese stars sewn by Dad. 

CoLtOn - The Frog.  Costume hand-me down from big brother.  He was a little cranky for pics because he had just woken from a nap, but he was the best little hopper ever.  When anyone asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, he would hop and say "ribbit, ribbit."

And the festivities included . . .

Corbin's party at school.  Colton helped me with the game station.  Then we got to watch all the kids parade through the school and around the black top.  That was fun.

Visiting Grandma Sharee at her school.  Corbin actually had Friday off, so we went to see Despicable Me at the dollar movie and then to see Grandma in her cute farm girl costume.

Fire Dept Halloween Party.  Chili cook-off, cake walk, pinatas, pumpkin bowling (by moi), trunk or treat and lots of fun.  And Corbin won 1st place for best costume.  It was a great night.

On Saturday, Main Street trick or treat while daddy & Colton took a nap.  It's fun to see the scarecrows and to see everyone's costumes in the daylight.  But it's getting more and more crowded every year, it was fun, but I don't think we'll be doing it again.

And of course, the traditional trick or treating on Halloween (which actually occurs on Saturday in Utah when Halloween falls on the Sabbath).  This picture was actually taken the night before.  Which was good.  I got NO pictures of the actual Halloween, because it was rainy and yucky and the first time Russ and the kids attempted to go out, they actually got hailed on.  Luckily they were still in our cul-de-sac, but they had to make a run for it and that was a bit frightening.  But after about an hour it cleared and then the whole neighborhood was out.  It turned out not too bad, although you couldn't really see anyone's costume's because they were all covered with coats, gloves and hats.  Oh well, the kids had fun, that's all that counts.  We ended the night with a scary Scooby Doo movie and popcorn.  It was a good night.

It's Independence Day!

Holy cow did we have a crazy day!  And it wasn't even the 4th of July (it was the 3rd)!

We left the house at 6:45am to meet the firetruck in time for the Murray parade.  We love riding in the parade!  I think seeing all the parade-goers may be more fun than actually watching the parade itself.  Plus we get to throw cool red, white, and blue plastic bead necklaces (not quite like Mardi Gras, but close), so that makes it extra fun.  And this year our cousins came with us - extra bonus!

After the parade we went for our traditional breakfast at Village Inn.  Nothing exceptional except that Corbin actually won something from one of those claw grabber things!  And of course this was just after I told him not to waste his money on it because no one ever gets anything from those things.

And THEN, his cousin got one too!  So much for all my great motherly advice.

After that, Russ had to work the First Aid booth at the park, so we went over, too, to check out all the fun...

Obstacle course

Playing on the playground

And then Corbin got to do the coolest game ever

And then Russ got involved (yes, he gets paid to do this sort of thing)

Too bad they lost.  Back to training for him!

Then they all got to try the hoses.  That's always fun.  I love how their shirts say "Property of MCFD" (Murray City Fire Dept).  We just got them the morning of the parade and I love them!  We are so proud of our Daddy!

Russ had a little fun of his own that was captured by a local reporter . . .

(click here for photo credits and more) 

And since we hadn't had quite enough water . . .

It only took Russ two tries...

On the way to a BBQ/Pool Party with our firefighter friends, Colton did a little of this:

But that didn't last long.  Then we spent the afternoon doing this

and eating yummy food and chatting, of course.  Thanks Jeff and Martha for being awesome hosts!

And then we made our way to yet another BBQ at Russ' brother's.  Unfortunately, by this point I was quite tuckered out and was a complete party pooper - no pictures and we left before it even got dark enough for fireworks.  It was long, but FUN!

(And since I am now tired from doing this extra long blog post, I will have to post about the actual 4th of July later...)