As if the weekend hadn't been fun enough already...

Yesterday my aunt and uncle, Kris and Jeff, invited us to a BBQ at their house with some of the members of their ward.  Ryan had to go into work later in the evening but we were able to show up a little early to visit and ended up staying a little later than we expected, work would just have to wait. ;)  The food was delicious, the view was beautiful, and the company was great!  Who can walk away from that so easily?

I really like my family.  I have to say that everytime we spend time with any of our family up here, I always leave thinking, "Why don't we visit with them more often?"  They are lots of fun and really good people.  We love them! :)

Here are some pics from our evening:


Jeff cooked up some delicious BBQ chicken!


Aurora couldn't keep her hand out of this chip bowl! lol


Then she would take the chips she had just grabbed, climb up on the ice chests full of sodas, use the deck railing as a place to put her chips, and stand there eating while she watched the kids jump on the trampolines below. lol





Rori also liked to open up the ice chests and "rearrange" the sodas.  Silly girl! lol




We hardly saw Cadi much, except when we were actually eating.  She spent half of her time downstairs playing the piano and ping pong and the other half of her time on the trampolines.









I love the view from their back deck!  On a clear day, you'd see Mt. St. Helens right above the hills, but I also really like when it's cloudy like this.  You can watch the clouds roll over the hills, it's so beautiful and peaceful!

We lit up the sky like the Fourth of July!

Last night we had a grand ole time!  We went to my aunt and uncle's house and had a yummy BBQ with way too much good food.  Then we walked up to the park and had a big water balloon fight.  Rori also played on the playground a little with her cousin Riley.  And finally we headed back down to the house so we could get ready for fireworks. :)

My only complaint last night was that the guys started lighting off fireworks while it was still light!  I know it's fun for them to light them, even if they can't see them, but it isn't nearly as fun to watch when you can't see the actual firework.  I told Ryan that next year we are not buying so many if they are going to light them before dark again.  Smart boy agreed with me so hopefully we do not have that problem next year.

I tried to put Rori down to sleep but she had been up when they lit off the first ones so was a little nervous about all the noise.  If they had waited to light them, she probably would have gone to bed just fine because she wouldn't have been nervous at all yet.  But oh well.  We had headphones that we put on her and she ended up staying up the whole night and watched the whole show with us. :)

Even though Ryan spent an arm and a leg on fireworks this year, our show wasn't quite as big as last year.  Even if they hadn't of lit those early ones before dark, it still wouldn't have been quite as big just because not as many people brought fireworks this time.  But it was still really fun and we did light up the sky with our fair share of fun. :)

Here are a bunch of pictures from our night:























































It was a lot of fun!  And I think we've convinced most (if not all) of Ryan's brother's family that this is the place to be on the Fourth of July, so hopefully they'll come next year too!  Anyone else who wants to have some real fun is welcome as well - The more, the merrier! :)

Ryan's such a tease!

Cadi's back!!!  And of course, that means that Rance, Jess, and the kids are all back too!  Yay!  It was so good to see them - especially Acadia! :D 

Last night, Ryan let the kids take turns lighting some of the fireworks.  We have so many for tonight that he figured we could afford to do a few a little early.  It was fun and now we're really excited for tonight when we get to light the rest of them!

I think a lot of people think that when we say "everything's legal" that we mean bottle rockets and stuff like that.  Uh, no.  I don't know if those are legal or not, probably not! lol  No, what we mean is your classic, big, way up in the sky, looks-like-a-firework-at-a-show kinds of fireworks are legal.  And it is such a BLAST (hehe, no pun intended) to do your own show for your friends/neighbors/etc.

I'm so excited for tonight!  Here are a couple pics from LAST YEAR that illustrate some of the fun that's lying ahead...

However you celebrate today, I hope you have a fun and safe time!

When it rains, it pours!

At some time in the middle of the night, I was woken up by this *noise*. What the heck? It took me a moment to realize it was rain! Now, obviously, we are no strangers to rain around here, but I have never been woken up by it before. However, this was no typical rainy night. It was downright POURING! It sounded like someone was power washing our roof! And then, even though our blinds were closed, the room would light up with the lightening and even though the lightening was several miles away, it felt like the house was shaking from the thunder. I was worried it would all wake up Rori, but thankfully it didn't. It did wake up Ryan though. Too bad it all happened so late (or was it early?) because it would have been an awesome storm to watch.

Stinker! ... I mean, Stinger!

Rori just came up to me holding a little plastic toy bee. She said, "Bee!" Then started "stinging" me on my foot.

Who taught her that?

Yeah, well... thanks.

Letting Go

Things I've "let go" recently...

•Cadi! But I did finally get to talk to her today. (48 hours, that is the new record on how long I've gone without talking to her.) She called and we talked for just a few minutes before she had to go. Then she called me back a little later, turns out she had gotten car sick and she hung up so she could *be sick*. Poor girl. But then she was feeling better and talked about all the fun stuff they've been doing. It sounds like she's been having fun! She has taken a bunch of pictures that she can't wait to show me. :) And she bought a postcard for me. Then took a picture of the picture on the postcard. lol Silly girl. It was great to hear from her.

•I'm selling more stuff on e-bay. I have come to realize that I am just not going to be scrapbooking anymore either. So, now I'm selling a bunch MORE stuff on e-bay. Wierd that I am doing it. I really like scrapbooking. It just never happens. I do think I'll be digi scrapping though. :)

•I wanted fireworks on my big toes for the Fourth, so I got a sitter and Beckie and I went for manicures and pedicures. I went to the same place I went to last year for fireworks (which looked super cute!), but the girl I had this time felt uneasy doing the fireworks, I guess she hadn't done one before. So I told her that all I really wanted was red/white/blue - something patriotic. So now I have red/white/blue flowers on my toes. That works. :)

•My backyard. I'm realizing that with Ryan traveling for work this summer, the backyard is not going to get done. Not even the deck. I'm bummed but I'll live. At least the shed is almost done, at least THAT should be finished this year. ;)

This is definitely a record!

I haven't talked to Cadi in about 32 hours!!! I don't know if I've ever gone this long without talking to her, even when I've been out of town I've called home every day. Yes, I'm going through withdrawals! I miss my girl!

She's off having fun though and I don't think they're getting much cell phone covereage up there in Olympic National Park. But I know she's in good hands so I'm not worried... just missing her. It will be really weird if we don't get to talk to her until she's home! Eeks!!!