Merica.

This is the last blog post I have to catch up on, so here goes!

It wouldn't be 4th of July without a trip up to the cabin, so of course, that's where we headed!

I forgot my camera, so these are a few pictures I snapped on my phone.

Our morning always starts with the Indian Hills Parade.  

Here are this year's parade attendees...I think we have more people watching than were actually in the parade!

Rosalind's mom had to work, so she joined us for the festivities.  Payton wrote USA on her forehead using the mirror, so when I came downstairs that morning, she had ASU showing proudly.  I had to help her fix her mistake :)

Brady was feeling patriotic as well.

We stayed up at the cabin until early afternoon.  The girls and I went hiking and the boys stayed back to shoot some bb guns and play some wiffle ball.  This year, again, there were no fireworks, so we headed home after an early dinner and had a few friends come over.

Nate and Trish, Chris Roozing, and Brad and Jayne joined us with all of their kiddos.

Playing some bags.

After dinner, we indulged in some popsicles.

All of the girlies...

I'm not sure Landon or Cohen actually got any popsicle in their mouth!

And we topped off the night with some fireworks.  They were a few years old, so we make the best of what we had.  Which wasn't very much :)

Some smoke bombs which were very smoky.

And some dud sparklers.  This one that Payton is holding was actually quite impressive.  The others were pretty much just flames on a metal stick!

The other fireworks we had were some old kind-of bottle rockets.  They shot out of a bottle and a parachute man came raining down.  We sent off two or three, then a rogue one went flying into our neighbors tree.  Given the extreme drought, we decided not to light off any more. :)

Cohen wasn't exactly loving the sparklers.

Brady and Elizabeth thought they were cool.

Hopefully someday the rains will return and we will be able to stay up at the cabin for a big fireworks show.  Until then, we will make our own fun with fireworks and celebrate with family and friends.  Happy 4th!