Some good ole Idahoan fun...

Fourth of July is absolutely my favorite holiday of the year, excluding Christmas because that's everyone's favorite right? I am a total sucker for jean shorts and plaid shirts doning our country's colors, everything BBQ-ish and you really can't go wrong with fireworks, whether they turn out to be duds or not! Fantastic holiday traditions, to be sure!

We were a little worried as to how this Fourth of July would turn out. We usually make pretty big plans with family, and this year we were home bound with no plans, no money, and lots of work to do on Brandon's PA application. We started off the weekend literally working from the minute we woke up at 8 am to 7 that night on Brandon's narrative essay for his application. I have quite literally never experienced such a mentally exhausting day, not even during college finals.

To regain some sanity, we called Gary and Tara over for a campout in our backyard, which was the break we needed and the perfect intro to an awesome weekend.

Here's our set up in the backyard, and Gary brought over the projector so the kiddos could watch a show outside.

I was so surprised that Tori and I ended up sleeping outside the whole night. She wouldn't go down until midnight when she casually laid down on her air mattress and fell right to sleep...for the entire night. I was convinced I'd end up inside either due to bathroom visitations or discomfort, but I roughed it in our backyard and even slept through the drunk neighbors, early fireworks, and then the jungle of birds that welcomed in the morning.


The next day Gary and Tara came to our rescue again and invited us out wakeboarding. Tori's been in a canoe and raft, but never a power boat, so I was super excited to take her out. Confession time: I don't really love wakeboarding. I don't hate it, but it's just not a overwhelming passion of mine. I mainly dislike crashing on water. Lots of bad experiences there haha! So, it was really nice to have an "excuse" to just ride, swim, eat and soak up some sun with no stress over how I would be face planting in the water that day : ) I would make a nice rich wife on a yacht I think. Again, my daughter surprised me and got into the cold lake water with us. She would squeal the whole time. It was obvious that Cody was the more natural water baby. He was very chill like they were laying him down on the couch for a nice movie haha, but Tori was so overly excited like we had never exposed her to water before haha!

Clearly, she wore herself right out!

We decided to buy just a handful of fireworks to do with our family Sunday night. Isn't this photo great?! All this excitement, joy, and fear over a sparkler! Pretty much all the fireworks we did were duds, but based on Tori's reaction to real fireworks, I would say these were pretty much perfect for our little lion heart. One firework was a chicken, and Tori was very upset by his incineration. She kept saying "Poor guy."

On the morning of the fourth, our stake had a pancake breakfast. We don't really know a ton of people in our stake so needless to say, it was a little awkward for me, but I learned a valuable lesson from my sweet daughter. Tori was insistent that she play with the other kids in the grassy area. Most of them were bigger and pretty uinterested in Tori, so I kept commenting to Brandon that I'd rather just head home. It's always hard watching your kid get the cold shoulder. But she was insistent on finding someone to play with. This isn't the best picture but she finally did catch an older girl's attention, and gradually most of the kids stopped what they were doing and ended up in a huddle around Tori and her "purse" of goodies, ie Mom's make up bag full of random dollar store toys and Happy Meal surprises. I was so proud of her!! I would have got discouraged or settled for my mom's caddling but Tori knew what she wanted and it was endearing to watch them all wave goodbye to her when we had to leave.

After which, we headed down to the much debated parade. Contrary to the exaggerated yet entertaining cock fight on facebook, I thoroughly enjoyed the parade. It was super hot, but we got to scoff some pizza from the Pie Hole and benefit from great company by a friendly couple sitting next to us. Anti-Obama promos were expected, but I thought it was a nicely diverse showing. Obviously, stripes and sitting like that wasn't the most flattering pose for me, but this is the only family picture from the day. Tori refused to sit by us. We all around settled for what we could get from both kids. A little self-tooting of the horn here, but I made that shirt Tori is wearing the night before. Boom baby! Here she is waving her flag and sucking down some otter pop with her new friend Riley. She was a bit of social butterfly that day! Wish I could make friends that easy haha!


This was a totally posed face...impressive right? She was sad about something, but I asked her to show me her sad face and voila, magic was made haha. Such a drama queen!

Tara's parents have seriously been so good to us. We're so grateful for them, and again, they included us in their family fun that night for a BBQ and fireworks. They set up a fun water slide for the kids. It was just so fun to chat with women my age and watch Tori interact with little ones hers.
And this is how we enjoyed the firework show. No complaining here! Great snuggles!

And I always like some firework shots for musing over later. This one had grown wildly out of control. Great eye candy though, if you were lucky enough to not get blinded by the sparks shooting at your face.
Sally and Clancy live in a great neighborhood. We had plenty of fireworks to watch both on the ground and in the sky.
And I wanted to document Tori's first sparkler scribbles.

I have to say, amidst all the controversial debate that ensued from my hubby's comment on facebook, I really grew a great appreciation for family this fourth, not only through defending one another on facebook, but through the good quality time we've been so lucky to enjoy. This has been one of the hardest moves I've ever made, not to throw a pity party or anything, just the strange combination of being pregnant and dealing with continuous change either from a growing little girl or little boy, or Brandon's stressful schedule, but I was so grateful that my in-laws stepped in and were able to help me have the best favorite holiday I could. And for everyone backing up Brandon! Politics have been such a touchy subject in my experience, but I was grateful to know that when it came down to it, we always have family.