Fun times!!

After all the craziness of June we were very much in need of a fun fourth of July weekend!  And thankfully it was lots of fun and very relaxing!  I'm pretty sure any weekend that is free of manual labor qualifies as fun and relaxing :)

The week before 4th of July the weather was gorgeous!  I mean highs in the low 80's which is close to miraculous that time of year.  So we spent some time at the park by our new house!  Colton could spend all day in the swing if I had the patience to push him for that long.  (Those are his ninja hands.)

We also enjoyed a picnic outside in our backyard, our backyard that actually has landscaping and real trees!  Colton was very creative using his swing as a comfy seat.  (more ninja hands)

Jaxon was in heaven.  This kid loves life and lives it to its fullest.  

One night we had a little "pizza party" at the pool, cause $5 Little Ceasars and leaving the mess outside is sometimes too good to pass up! 

Then baby "Miwo" came to visit, along with his parents, for the 4th of July!  All my kids ADORE Milo.  It makes me so excited for our little guy to come.

On the 4th we had some friends over for swimming and a barbecue.  I was super excited that my star pie turned out so well!!

Then we went and watched fireworks with a big group of friends.  We did Madison's annual "star hair" with glow sticks!

Here's our patriotic family!

The kids made matching shirts and they made Milo a little matching onesie!

We saved backyard fireworks for July 5 since we got home so late on 4th of July.  The kids loved it!  Jaxon was super excited about this grenade!

Then Madi had another swim meet.  She was so excited to have Danielle, Trevor, and Milo there to cheer her on.  

I'm obviously an excellent Aunt and I take very good care of my nephew :)

Madi, Danielle, and I went on a little girls date while Danielle was here.  Madison thought it was super fun to dress up in all the accessories at Plato's closet.  I was impressed by how well she could walk in those 5 inch heels!

We also picked up some ice cream.  I think Madison is starting to see the perks of being the only girl and the oldest child!

Madison has been spending a lot of time reading this summer.  She's working through Ellen Tibbits right now, which is a Beverly Cleary books.  I love those Beverly Cleary books, but man they are outdated.  Madison keeps asking me what things like "woolen underwear" are and I have to dig hard to explain it since it's so far beyond anything she's familiar with.

As always, we hit up 7-11 on 7-11 for free slurpees!  I realized after we got there that my kids looked especially amazing that day.  During the summer I usually let them dress themselves and sometimes I regret that decision.

Then Danielle, Milo, my kids, and I headed off to Kansas City for my brother, Seth's, missionary farewell.   Jaxon made his usual disaster in the back of the car and spent the entire day with chocolate donut in his hair.  

I always love driving through southeaster Kansas.  It's the prettiest part of the drive and it makes me appreciate that almost all landscapes have their own special beauty (except maybe southern New Mexico.)

We visited Black Bob pool while we were in Kansas.  This pool is where all of my siblings worked during high school.  I've been swimming there since I was 5.  They still have a good old 3 meter board and the kids LOVED it!

They took no coaxing at all to jump right off that thing!

Grandpa and Uncle Seth went swimming with the kids one night, too!!

We also spent a wonderful evening in the back yard catching fire flies, 

lighting off sparklers,

and roasting marshmallows.  Ya gotta love a kid friendly backyard!

I took the kids to Liberty Jail while we were in Kansas City.   I love church history sites and I want my kids to learn to love them, too!

We stopped by the 8 witnesses monument, too.  It's pretty new and it has some history associated with it that was new to me!

One morning while we were in KC Jaxon woke up with the best bed head ever.  Also, Madison's face in the corner is classic.  She loves mornings (not).

The missionaries are living with my parents right now and my kids loved having them around.  It was fun to watch the daily routine of a missionary, which is something I've never seen!

Then, after a short visit, we said good-bye to Seth.  All these little kids will be much bigger by the time he gets home and there will definitely be more kids born in the next two years!

We missed Garrett being there, but I was glad we were able to go up and say "good-bye."

The road trip back was a little ridiculous.  We had to stop about every 20 minutes it seemed like.  Danielle got carsick, Milo kept having blow-outs, everyone had to go potty, etc.  Ya know, pretty much what you would expect with 4 kids, a nursing mom, and a prego.  Jaxon sat in the back with this McDonald's box on his head for a good 30 minutes.  That kid.  He's a funny one.

We drove through Moore, OK on the way back.  It was so sad to see the destruction, but also super crazy, because even though it was horrible, it was a very narrow section and everything else on both sides was still standing.  

Then, after two weeks together, I put Danielle on a plane and she headed back to San Angelo.  Now it's just back to our little family and our house that still needs lots of organization and attention!  It was such a nice break, though.  And Danielle and I decided it would be super awesome to be sister wives, if we didn't have to share a husband that is, cause seriously, having two moms around is so much better than one!